How many kilograms are in 3 liters of sugar?

"Liters to Kilograms" Calculator
How many kilograms in
L

How many kilograms are in 3 liters of sugar?

Answer

3 liters of sugar weighs
2.16–2.7 kg

The bulk density of sugar is 0.72–0.9 kg/L, measured like this: dry granulated sugar; the low end is loose fill, the high end is settled. This is not the density of the crystals. The range here comes from packing, not from any doubt about the source.

How the mass of 3 liters of sugar 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.

0.72 kg/L × 3 L

=

2.16 kg

loose pour

0.9 kg/L × 3 L

=

2.7 kg

dense packing

The density comes from Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University, granulated sugar. Dry granulated sugar; the low end is loose fill, the high end is settled. This is not the density of the crystals.

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 3 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 sugar that means 3 liters weighs 2.16–2.7 kg here, and one kilogram of it takes 1.11–1.39 liters there.

Related Calculations

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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 3 liters of sugar? (The answer is: 2.16–2.7). 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 3 liters of each substance weighs

SubstanceMassDensity, kg/L
Beer3.03 kg1.01
Cement3.75–4.2 kg1.25–1.4
Coal1.96–3.8 kg0.654–1.266
Cucumbers1.86–1.92 kg0.62–0.64
Diesel2.5 kg0.834
Gasoline2.22 kg0.74
Honey4.26 kg1.42
Juice3.18 kg1.06
LPG1.53 kg0.51
Milk3.09 kg1.03
Mineral spirits2.34 kg0.78
Motor oil2.55 kg0.85
Sand4.95–6 kg1.65–2
Soil3.9–4.5 kg1.3–1.5
Sugar2.16–2.7 kg0.72–0.9
Tomatoes1.65–1.8 kg0.55–0.6
Vegetable oil2.76 kg0.92
Wall primer3 kg1
Water2.99 kg0.998

FAQ

How many kilograms are in 3 liters of sugar?

3 liters of sugar weighs 2.16–2.7 kg

How do you work out the mass of 3 liters of sugar?

Mass equals volume times density. The density of sugar is 0.72–0.9 kg/L and the volume is 3 liters, which gives 2.16–2.7 kg.

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 0.72–0.9 kg/L, measured like this: dry granulated sugar; the low end is loose fill, the high end is settled. This is not the density of the crystals. A single number would be a claim about packing that the source never made.

Is 3 liters of sugar heavier or lighter than water?

Sugar has a density of 0.72–0.9 kg/L against 0.998 for water, so the same 3 liters weighs 2.16–2.7 kg instead of 2.99 kg. This is exactly why the everyday shorthand "a liter is a kilogram" only holds for water.

See Also