>I suspect that only a minority of people in metric-using countries -- those with basic chemistry knowledge fresh in their mind -- know that "one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade".
I wouldn’t be so certain about that. I’ve used that to conceptualize volumes and weights ever since I first learned that in school.
Nice point, but it is really the typical elementary school topic "one cubic centimeter of water is one gram, one cubic decimeter is one kilograms, one cubic meter is one THOUSAND!!! kilograms"
Then in highschool it is used for physics and unit of measurements and everyone knows that you can just weight milk and water when you cook with 1kg = 1liter
Normal people don’t do that. They just know that a gallon is a gallon, a meter is a meter, a pound is a pound, etc. People rarely have need to convert between mass and volume. And they don’t weigh their milk or water.
I wouldn’t be so certain about that. I’ve used that to conceptualize volumes and weights ever since I first learned that in school.