5-The Liter (L) is the SI unit for volume. Usually, small volumes of liquid are given in milliliters (mL). Remember that 1 L equals 1,000 mL. Any volume of liquid, from one tear drop to the entire Pacific Ocean, can be given in liters or milliliters.4-he earliest known uniform systems of weights and measures seem all to have been created at some time in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, and perhaps also Elam (in Iran) as well.