The litre (British English spelling) or liter (American English spelling), marked with symbols L and l, is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm^3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm^3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m^3). A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies a volume of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre.
One litre of liquid water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram, because the kilogram was originally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at the temperature of melting ice (0 degree celsius).
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