Convert Femtoliter (fL) to Petaliter (PL) instantly.
About these units
Femtoliter (fL)
A femtoliter represents 10⁻¹⁵ liters and is commonly used in hematology, particularly in describing red blood cell size. A typical red blood cell has a volume of roughly 80–100 fL, making this unit ideal for medical diagnostics. Beyond medicine, femtoliters are used in microfluidics and nanoparticle research, where reaction chambers or droplets often hold only a few dozen femtoliters of liquid. The femtoliter exemplifies how modern science pushes measurement into realms dominated by statistical motion, molecular interactions, and quantum effects—scales that once seemed impossible to quantify.
Petaliter (PL)
A petaliter represents 10¹⁵ liters, a massive unit used to quantify the total water content of oceans, polar ice sheets, or planetary atmospheres. Oceanographers may describe the Pacific Ocean's volume or the total ice volume of Antarctica in petaliters; these scales cannot be expressed meaningfully in smaller units without imposing huge, impractical numbers. The PL is also sometimes used in astronomy to approximate ocean-like features on other worlds, such as subsurface oceans on Europa or Enceladus. It represents one of the largest practical volumetric units before entering pure theoretical measurement.