Pinches to Liters (pinch to L)

1 pinch equals 0.0003080575996 liters (rounded).

1 pinch = 0.0003080575996 liters

How to convert pinches to liters

To convert pinches to liters, multiply the number of pinches by 0.0003080575996. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply liters by 3,246.146179 (rounded).

liters = pinches × 0.0003080575996

Example: 10 pinches = 0.003080575996 liters.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

Approximate value. Standards for the pinch varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Pinch (pinch)

Cooking & barTraditional unit (still used in some regions)Approximate value

Traditionally what you can hold between thumb and forefinger; the conventional measure is 1/16 of a teaspoon (about 0.31 mL).

Whatever two fingers can grip, the old definition went: a pinch is the amount of a dry ingredient such as salt, spice or sugar that can be taken between the thumb and forefinger. Nothing official fixes it, so the size depends on the hand, the ingredient and the cook. Sources differ even on the convention. Some measuring spoon makers and American cookbooks use one sixteenth of a US teaspoon, while others give one eighth or one twenty-fourth.

The figure used here is one sixteenth of a US teaspoon, about 0.31 mL, which makes a pinch half a dash and twice a smidgen. Wikipedia's cooking measures table prints a smaller 0.23 mL for the same fraction because it derives it from a fluid ounce fraction that does not agree with its teaspoon fraction. The British tradition is larger, with a pinch set at a quarter of a UK teaspoon, roughly 0.89 mL according to the Wikipedia article on the pinch. Sizes are conventional, and a pinch measured on a scale would vary from one try to the next.

1 pinch = 0.0003080575996 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Pinch (unit); Wikipedia: Cooking weights and measures

Liter (L)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One cubic decimeter (1,000 cm³). The everyday metric unit of volume for drinks, fuel and cooking.

The liter was born in revolutionary France. In 1795 it was introduced as a republican unit and defined as one cubic decimeter, while the gram was tied to a cubic centimeter of water. The name comes from the older French litron, itself descended from a Byzantine Greek unit of weight, not volume. A small revision of the decimeter in 1798 left the first liter about 1.000974 of today's cubic decimeter, and in 1879 the international metric authorities adopted the liter with the symbol l.

The liter then took a strange detour. In 1901 it was redefined as the space taken up by one kilogram of pure water at its densest, which made it about 1.000028 cubic decimeters, and that muddled definition lasted until 1964, when it was restored to exactly one cubic decimeter. A capital L was added as an alternative symbol in 1979 because a lowercase l is easy to mistake for the digit 1, and NIST says L is the symbol to use in the United States. A liter of water is close to a kilogram, which is why a one-liter bottle feels like a kilo in the hand.

The liter is the reference unit for volume on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 5: units outside the SI

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