Convert Drop (drop) to Tablespoon (US) (tbsp) instantly.
About these units
Drop (drop)
The drop is one of the oldest fluid measures and originally referred simply to the amount of liquid that naturally forms at the end of a dripping vessel. Because drop size depends on viscosity, surface tension, temperature, and orifice size, early medicine found drops inconsistent and unreliable. Modern medicine and chemistry sometimes define a drop as 0.05 mL, but this is only a convention used for standardized droppers—real drops can vary significantly. Despite its imprecision, the drop survives in everyday language, aromatherapy, essential oils, and household instructions ("add a few drops"). It exemplifies humanity's earliest attempts to quantify small volumes before scientific instrumentation enabled precise micro-measurement.
Tablespoon (US) (tbsp)
The US tablespoon is defined as 14.7868 mL, though commonly rounded to 15 mL in nutritional labeling and informal cooking contexts. In American cooking, the tablespoon is indispensable for measuring oils, spices, and small liquid quantities. It is also widely used in medicine for dosing liquid medications at home, though modern practice increasingly recommends milliliters for clarity. Its relationship—3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon and 16 tablespoons = 1 cup—allows American cooks to scale recipes easily, making it a cornerstone unit of the US culinary measurement system.