How many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal?

"Liters to Kilograms" Calculator
How many kilograms in
L

How many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal?

Answer

20 liters of coal weighs
13.1–25.3 kg

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

mass = volume × density

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.

See Also

About "Liters to Kilograms" Calculator

This calculator converts liters to kilograms through the density of the substance: mass equals volume times density. A liter on its own has no weight — a liter of water weighs almost exactly a kilogram, a liter of honey close to one and a half, and a liter of gasoline about three quarters. For example, it can help you find out how many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal? (The answer is: 13.1–25.3). For bulk materials — cement, sand, soil, coal, vegetables — density depends on how the material is packed, so the page prints a range and names the state it was measured in, instead of passing one number off as a physical constant.
"Liters to Kilograms" Calculator
How many kilograms in
L

How much 20 liters of each substance weighs

SubstanceMassDensity, kg/L
Beer20.2 kg1.01
Cement25–28 kg1.25–1.4
Coal13.1–25.3 kg0.654–1.266
Cucumbers12.4–12.8 kg0.62–0.64
Diesel16.7 kg0.834
Gasoline14.8 kg0.74
Honey28.4 kg1.42
Juice21.2 kg1.06
LPG10.2 kg0.51
Milk20.6 kg1.03
Mineral spirits15.6 kg0.78
Motor oil17 kg0.85
Sand33–40 kg1.65–2
Soil26–30 kg1.3–1.5
Sugar14.4–18 kg0.72–0.9
Tomatoes11–12 kg0.55–0.6
Vegetable oil18.4 kg0.92
Wall primer20 kg1
Water20 kg0.998

FAQ

How many kilograms are in 20 liters of coal?

20 liters of coal weighs 13.1–25.3 kg

How do you work out the mass of 20 liters of coal?

Mass equals volume times density. The density of coal is 0.654–1.266 kg/L and the volume is 20 liters, which gives 13.1–25.3 kg — the figure on this page is rounded, so multiplying the two printed numbers can differ in the last digit.

Why a range instead of a single number?

Because for a bulk material the density depends on packing as much as on the substance. The source gives a band of 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. A single number would be a claim about packing that the source never made.

Is 20 liters of coal heavier or lighter than water?

Coal has a density of 0.654–1.266 kg/L against 0.998 for water, so the same 20 liters weighs 13.1–25.3 kg instead of 20 kg. This is exactly why the everyday shorthand "a liter is a kilogram" only holds for water.