Math Story : Standard Units Of Capacity
The Invisible Syrup
“Why are you so happy?” questions Triho. “For a long time, I was working on making a magical drink that would make people invisible. I have finally achieved it. I will call this magical drink – The Invisible Syrup”, says Uncle Science and he continues his celebration.
Triho is thrilled and says, “Invisible? Really? I want to try the Invisible Syrup. Can I?” Uncle Science thinks for a while and says, “Of course, you can!” He puts a drop of Invisible Syrup in his mouth. Will he disappear?
Splash! Triho disappears immediately. “Uncle Science! Uncle Science!” he screams. But Uncle Science is looking here and there to understand where the sound is coming from.
Splash! Triho is visible now! “Wow! This is fabulous”, he says. But Triho has a request. “Can I borrow some Invisible Syrup? I will show it to my friends”, he says. “Alright! But remember, at once you can have only 100 ml of it”, explains Uncle Science.
“100 ml? What does that mean?” asks Triho. “ml stands for millilitres. We measure the capacity of a container in ml. So 100 ml is telling that this container can hold upto 100 ml of a liquid”, explains Uncle Science. Triho is clear and he leaves to share this good news with his friends.
On the way, Triho gets an idea. “Let me have some fun before I show it to everyone”, he thinks. Is he planning a prank? Let us find out.
Ding Dong! Squarho hears the doorbell ring. As he opens the door, he finds no one. He looks here and there to see if there was
somebody hiding somewhere. But no! He cannot spot anyone. He decides to walk in.
Ding Dong! The doorbell rings again. Irritated, he says, “Who is it?” Of course, nobody responds. “Boom!” he hears a voice from the back. Squarho is scared now. He cannot see anyone but hears a voice. “Is it a ghost?” he thinks.
Splash! The power of the Invisible Syrup is over and Triho is visible now. “Uff! Triho! You scared me!” says Squarho. Triho bursts into laughter. “But wait! How did you do this? Is it some magic?” asks Squarho. Triho iterates everything to him and how did he get the invisible syrup.
“Woohoo! I will go and get the syrup too!” says Squarho and he leaves for Uncle Science’s house.
On reaching Uncle Science’s house, Squarho cannot spot him. But he spots something in his lab. There are some jars and a liquid on the table.
“This must be the Invisible syrup!” he thinks. Without giving much thought he drinks the syrup. Soon, he became invisible too!
Squarho is elated.
Soon, the power of invisible syrup gets over! Squarho is visible again. “When I drank so little, I was invisible for a short time. What if I drink the entire jar?” he thinks. Oh no! Uncle Science had advised drinking only 100 ml. Will Squarho drink the entire liquid? What will happen to him?
Gulp! Gulp! Squarho drinks the entire liquid. “Haha! I can scare Triho now!” he thinks and leaves.
Uncle Science who was attending a call in the other room is back. “Oh no! Where is Invisible Syrup? Did someone rob it?” He panics.
On the other side, it is getting dark. Cirha, Cirho, and Triho look stressed! They cannot find Squarho. “I think the Invisible Syrup has something to do here”, thinks Triho making the connection. “Cirha, Cirho, let us go to Uncle Science”, he says.
Soon, they reach Uncle Science’s house. “Triho, I was looking for you. My invisible syrup is missing”, says Uncle Science.
Suddenly they hear someone yawning. They look around and spot no one. “Squarho! Squarho! Is it you?” questions Triho. He inferred that Squarho must have had the Invisible Syrup. “Yes yes!” responds Squarho.
“But where are you?” asks Cirho. They cannot spot Squarho yet. “What! Wwwhhhaaattt! Am I still invisible? But Triho was visible very soon when he came in the morning”, he questions. Triho is puzzled too. “Hmm!” says Uncle Science. It looks like he has understood the problem.
“Why did you drink the Invisible Syrup?” questions, Uncle Science. Squarho explains how after drinking the syrup he had plans of fooling his friends. He got tired in between so decided to rest for some time. But soon he fell asleep.
“That is okay! But how much of the syrup did you have?” questions Uncle Science. “The entire liquid from the jar”, says Squarho.
“What! But Uncle Science asked me to have only 100 ml of it”, says Triho. Squarho panics and starts crying. Boohoo! Boohoo!
“The entire jar had the capacity of 1,000 millilitres which is nothing but 1 litre. So you drank the entire 1 litre. When 100 ml could make you invisible for a shorter duration. You drank 10 times the quantity altogether. That means you will be invisible for a long time!” says Uncle Science.
“What! Boohoo! BooHoo!” Squarho cries even more. “Why didn’t you think before doing this? There is no point in crying now”, says Cirha. “It is important to think of the consequences of the actions before taking the decision”, says Triho. Squarho is impulsive and struggles with making constructive choices. What will happen now?
“Nothing can be done now. Squarho will have to stay like this for some time”, says Uncle Science. Having learnt a good lesson,
Squarho decides to think of various choices and decisions twice before taking any action. A wrong choice made Squarho realize his mistake. It wasn’t a good day for Squarho.
We Learnt That…
- Litre (l) and millilitre (ml) are standard units of measuring capacity.
- 1,000 millilitre makes 1 litre.
- It is important to analyze a situation before taking any action.
- Mistakes are good learning opportunities.
Let’s Discuss
- Why was Uncle Science happy?
- What was Invisible Syrup? What was special about it?
- Why was I in trouble?
- What are litres and millilitres?
- “We should think twice before taking any action”. Do you agree?
Please refer this guide by Fun2Do Labs for teaching measurement of capacity to kids :
