Volume conversion is haunted by the gallon problem: the U.S. gallon (3.785411784 liters) and the imperial gallon (4.54609 liters) share a name but differ by 20 percent. The same split infects fluid ounces (29.5735 mL U.S. versus 28.4131 mL imperial), pints, and quarts. The metric side is mercifully simple — milliliters, liters, and cubic meters, all decimal — and it is the legal standard for fuel, beverages, and medicine in nearly every country. In the kitchen, U.S. cooks also juggle teaspoons (4.9289 mL), tablespoons (14.7868 mL), and cups (236.588 mL), none of which match their imperial namesakes exactly.
Exact factors worth knowing: 1 US gallon = 3.785411784 L; 1 imperial gallon = 4.54609 L; 1 US fluid ounce = 29.5735295625 mL; 1 liter = 0.264172 US gallons = 1.75975 imperial pints; 1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters = 264.172 US gallons. Note that dry volumes (bushels, pecks) are a separate system from liquid volumes — a conversion between them is meaningless without knowing the substance.
The highest-stakes volume conversions are fuel economy comparisons (a car's '40 mpg' means different fuel burn in the U.S. versus the UK because the gallons differ), medication dosing (always metric — milliliters, never teaspoons from the cutlery drawer), and aquariums and pools, where a 20 percent gallon error means a 20 percent chemical-dosing error. When a recipe or manual says 'gallon' without qualification, check its country of origin before converting.