Dr. Beth McCulloch Vinson

Athens State University

PT3 Grant Funding, Summer 2000

Capacity is the amount that a container will hold.

Volume is the amount that a container will hold

in cubic units.

Let’s see how many cups that this cylinder will hold.

The capacity of the cylinder is

6 cups.

Count with me as we pour the cups of

sugar in one-at-a-time.

1 cup

2 cups

3 cups

4 cups

5 cups

6 cups

sugar

What is the volume of this box?

Let’s count the number

of cubes that it will take to fill this

box.

510

1520

40

60

80 The volume of this box is 80 cubic

units.

These are the common measures

of capacity:

fluid ounce milliliter

cup liter

pint quart gallon

These are the common measures

of volume:

cubic inch cubic foot

cubic centimeter cubic meter

cubic yard

A Project Developed for

Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3)

By Dr. Beth McCulloch Vinson

Athens State University, College of Education

http://www.athens.edu/vinsobm