NCERT Solutions for Class 5th Maths Chapter 8 Choosing between millilitres and litres — Measuring Capacity

Book page 113 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
You must have seen tea being prepared at your home. How much water and milk do we need to make 2 cups of tea? Do we need 1 l of water to make 2 cups of tea? Is 500 ml of water enough for 2 cups of tea?
Answer

No, we do not need 1 litre. Yes, 500 ml is more than enough.

  1. Start with one cup. A tea cup at home holds about 150 ml.
  2. Two cups therefore hold about 150 + 150 = 300 ml of tea in all.
  3. That 300 ml is water and milk together. A common mix is about 200 ml water and 100 ml milk.
  4. Compare with 1 litre. 1 l = 1,000 ml, and we need only about 200 ml of water. So 1 litre is far too much.
  5. Compare with 500 ml. 500 ml is more than 200 ml, so yes, it is enough — with plenty left over.
1 cup ≈ 150 ml
2 cups ≈ 300 ml of tea
Water needed ≈ 200 ml, milk ≈ 100 ml
1 l = 1,000 ml → far too much
500 ml > 200 ml → enough
Sample answer: “For 2 cups of tea we need about 200 ml of water and about 100 ml of milk. We do not need 1 litre of water — that would make about 6 or 7 cups. 500 ml of water is more than enough for 2 cups.”
Check it yourself: At home, fill a tea cup with water and then pour that water into an empty 1 litre bottle. Count how many cupfuls fill the bottle. You will need about six or seven — which shows one cup is about 150 ml.
Q2.
A bucket can hold a maximum of 20 ml of water. Is this statement correct? Which unit should be used in such a situation?
Answer

No, the statement is not correct. The right unit is the litre (l) — a bucket holds about 20 litres, not 20 millilitres.

  1. Think how small 20 ml is. It is about four teaspoons of water. A medicine spoon holds 5 ml.
  2. Think how big a bucket is. You can wash with it, or water plants with it. It clearly holds far more than four spoons.
  3. Change the unit, not the number. Millilitres are for spoons, injections and small bottles. Litres are for buckets, cans and drums.
  4. So the sentence should read: a bucket can hold a maximum of about 20 litres of water.
20 ml = about 4 teaspoons
20 l = 20 × 1,000 = 20,000 ml
That is a thousand times more — and that is a bucket
Why mistakes like this happen: The number 20 sounds right, so the sentence sounds right. But a measurement is a number and a unit together. Change the unit and you change the meaning completely — just as ₹20 and ₹20,000 are very different amounts of money.
Match the unit to the container: medicine spoon 5 ml · glass 250 ml · water bottle 1 l · bucket 20 l · water tank on the roof 500 l or more.
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