How many microliters are in one milliliter?

How many microliters are in one milliliter?

• A. 1000
• B. 1
• C. 100
• D. 0.1

Answer: (A)

Understanding metric prefixes and how they describe amounts of a liter helps you convert between milliliters and microliters. Micro means one millionth (10^-6) and milli means one thousandth (10^-3). Because a milliliter is 0.001 liter and a microliter is 0.000001 liter, the milliliter is 1000 times larger than the microliter. So one milliliter contains 1000 microliters. To switch between them, multiply by 1000 when going from mL to µL, or divide by 1000 when going from µL to mL. The other numbers don’t fit because they don’t reflect this 1000-fold difference.

Understanding metric prefixes and how they describe amounts of a liter helps you convert between milliliters and microliters. Micro means one millionth (10^-6) and milli means one thousandth (10^-3). Because a milliliter is 0.001 liter and a microliter is 0.000001 liter, the milliliter is 1000 times larger than the microliter. So one milliliter contains 1000 microliters. To switch between them, multiply by 1000 when going from mL to µL, or divide by 1000 when going from µL to mL. The other numbers don’t fit because they don’t reflect this 1000-fold difference.