How many kilograms are in 500 liters of water?

"Liters to Kilograms" Calculator
How many kilograms in
L

How many kilograms are in 500 liters of water?

Answer

500 liters of water weigh
499 kg

The density of water is 0.998 kg/L (liquid water at 20 °C; rounding to 1.00 kg/L is fine for everyday use).

How the mass of 500 liters of water was worked out

mass = volume × density

0.998 kg/L × 500 L

=

499 kg

The density comes from FAO/INFOODS Density Database v2.0. Liquid water at 20 °C; rounding to 1.00 kg/L is fine for everyday use.

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 500 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 water that means 500 liters weigh 499 kg here, and one kilogram of it takes 1 liter there.

See Also

  • Kilograms to Liters - How many liters are in a kilogram of water, honey, gasoline, sand and other substances — by density
  • Liters to Pounds - How much a liter of water, gasoline or propane weighs in pounds — by density
  • Gallons to Pounds - How much a gallon of water, milk, gasoline, diesel, oil or propane weighs in pounds — 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

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 500 liters of water? (The answer is: 499). 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.

How much 500 liters of each substance weigh

SubstanceMassDensity, kg/L
Beer505 kg1.01
Cement625–700 kg1.25–1.4
Coal327–633 kg0.654–1.266
Cucumbers310–320 kg0.62–0.64
Diesel417 kg0.834
Gasoline370 kg0.74
Honey710 kg1.42
Juice530 kg1.06
LPG255 kg0.51
Milk515 kg1.03
Mineral spirits390 kg0.78
Motor oil425 kg0.85
Sand825–1,000 kg1.65–2
Soil650–750 kg1.3–1.5
Sugar360–450 kg0.72–0.9
Tomatoes275–300 kg0.55–0.6
Vegetable oil460 kg0.92
Wall primer500 kg1
Water499 kg0.998

FAQ

How many kilograms are in 500 liters of water?

500 liters of water weigh 499 kg

How do you work out the mass of 500 liters of water?

Mass equals volume times density. The density of water is 0.998 kg/L and the volume is 500 liters, which gives 499 kg.

How accurate is the density of water?

The figure comes from FAO/INFOODS Density Database v2.0. Liquid water at 20 °C; rounding to 1.00 kg/L is fine for everyday use. For everyday use that is accurate with room to spare.