How many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal?
How many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal?
Answer
The bulk density of coal is 0.654–1.266 kg/L, measured like this: bituminous coal and anthracite, lumps up to 50 mm; rank, size and moisture can change the result twofold. The range here comes from packing, not from any doubt about the source.
How the mass of 20 liters of coal was worked out
For a bulk material the density depends on packing, so the sum runs along both edges of the band: the lower edge is a loose pour, the upper one is dense packing.
0.654 kg/L × 20 L
≈13.1 kg
loose pour
1.266 kg/L × 20 L
≈25.3 kg
dense packing
The density comes from IMSBC Code, Coal schedule. Bituminous coal and anthracite, lumps up to 50 mm; rank, size and moisture can change the result twofold.
Why a liter and a kilogram are not the same thing
A liter measures volume, a kilogram measures mass, and density is what ties them together: how many kilograms one liter of this particular substance comes to. The coincidence that makes people treat them as one thing is historical — in 1795 the gram was defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water, so a liter of water weighed a kilogram by construction. For anything else the equality breaks.
The extremes of this page make it obvious: one liter of LPG weighs 0.51 kg, while one liter of densely packed sand weighs 2 kg — four times more at the very same volume.
If the substance is not known in advance, start from how many kilograms are in 20 liters — the same volume across every substance at once.
The other way round: how much room a kilogram takes
This page starts from a volume and answers in kilograms. The opposite question — how many liters a given mass comes to — is what the kilograms to liters calculator is for. Both read the same density table, so the two pages agree wherever the answer is volume times density.
For coal that means 20 liters weighs 13.1–25.3 kg here, and one kilogram of it takes 0.79–1.53 liters there.
Related Calculations
See Also
- Kilograms to Liters - How many liters are in a kilogram of water, honey, gasoline, sand and other substances — by density
- L to Ml - Convert Liters to Milliliters
- Sand Calculator - Cubic yards, tons and coverage for any area
- Topsoil Calculator - Cubic yards, weight and coverage for any area
<a href="https://calculat.io/en/volume/l-to-kg/20--coal">20 liters of coal = 13.1–25.3 kg - Calculatio</a>
How much 20 liters of each substance weighs
| Substance | Mass | Density, kg/L |
|---|---|---|
| Beer | 20.2 kg | 1.01 |
| Cement | 25–28 kg | 1.25–1.4 |
| Coal | 13.1–25.3 kg | 0.654–1.266 |
| Cucumbers | 12.4–12.8 kg | 0.62–0.64 |
| Diesel | 16.7 kg | 0.834 |
| Gasoline | 14.8 kg | 0.74 |
| Honey | 28.4 kg | 1.42 |
| Juice | 21.2 kg | 1.06 |
| LPG | 10.2 kg | 0.51 |
| Milk | 20.6 kg | 1.03 |
| Mineral spirits | 15.6 kg | 0.78 |
| Motor oil | 17 kg | 0.85 |
| Sand | 33–40 kg | 1.65–2 |
| Soil | 26–30 kg | 1.3–1.5 |
| Sugar | 14.4–18 kg | 0.72–0.9 |
| Tomatoes | 11–12 kg | 0.55–0.6 |
| Vegetable oil | 18.4 kg | 0.92 |
| Wall primer | 20 kg | 1 |
| Water | 20 kg | 0.998 |