I subsequent to tried to construct a custom-sized aquarium for a extremely specific breed of bioluminescent shrimp I bought from a boy in a dark alley. Okay, most likely it wasn't a dark alley, but it was agreed a sketchy Craigslist ad. I had the glass. I had the silicone. I had a ruler that was missing the first three millimeters. What I didnt have was a clue. I kept staring at the glass panels, wondering, "Wait, how to determine litres from centimeters?" It felt next I was aggravating to solve a riddle posed by some ancient math-obsessed sphinx.

Calculations are annoying. They just are. We stir in a world where we desire the volume of our coffee mugs and our garden ponds to just magically appear in our heads. But the universe demands praise in the form of arithmetic. If you have ever felt physically pained by the sight of a measuring tape, you are in the right place. Lets break all along the logic of liquid volume of aquarium tank without making your brain leak out of your ears.

Before we acquire into the "how," lets chat about the "why." Why do we use centimeters at all? Why not inches? Or cubits? Or the length of a medium-sized banana? Centimeters are glorious because they belong to the metric system. The metric system is a neat, tidy room where all fits into boxes of ten. It is the Marie Kondo of measurement systems.