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Cubic metre



  The cubic metre (symbol ) is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. In the United States it is spelled cubic meter. An alternate name, which allowed a different usage with SI prefixes, was the stère. Another alternate name, not widely used anymore, is the kilolitre, spelled kiloliter in the United States.

Contents

Conversions

Main article: Unit conversion

1 cubic metre is equivalent to:

  • 1,000 litres (exactly); 1 litre = 0.001 m³ (exactly)
  • ~35.3 cubic feet (approximately); 1 cubic foot (1 ft³)= 0.028 316 846 592 m³ (exactly)
  • ~1.31 cubic yards (approximately); 1 cubic yard = 0.764 554 857 984 m³ (exactly)
  • ~6.29 oil barrels (approximately); 1 barrel = 0.158 987 294 928 m³ (exactly)

A cubic metre of pure water at the temperature of maximum density (3.98 °C) and standard atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa) has a mass of 1000 kg, or one tonne. At 0 °C, the freezing point of water, it is slightly less, 999.972 kg.

It is sometimes abbreviated to cu m, m3, m^3 or m**3 when superscript characters or markup are not available/accessible (i.e. in some typewritten documents and postings in Usenet newsgroups).

Abbreviated CBM in the freight business and MTQ (or numeric code 49) in international trade.

Multiples and submultiples

Main article: SI prefix

See 1 E-3 m³ for a comparison with other volumes.

Multiples

  • A cubic dekametre (dam³) is 1 000 cubic metres, and is equal to the volume of a cube of side length 1 dekametre (10 metres).
  • A cubic hectometre (hm³) is the volume equal to that of a cube of side length 1 hectometre (100 metres). 1 hm³ is 1 000 X 10 6 liters (see Giga litre). 1 000 cubic dekametres is 1 cubic hectometre (hm³) and 1 000 cubic hectometres is 1 cubic kilometre (km³).
  • A cubic kilometre (km³) is the volume equal to that of a cube of side length 1 kilometre.

Submultiples

  • A cubic decimetre (dm³) is the volume of a cube of side length 1 decimetre (0.1 metre). 1 cubic decimetre is equal to 1 litre.
    • From 1901 to 1964 the litre was defined as the volume of 1 kilogram of pure water at 4 degrees Celsius and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure. During this time, a litre was about 1.000028 dm3. In 1964 the original definition was reverted to.
  • A cubic centimetre (cm³) is equal to the volume of a cube with side length of 1 centimetre. It was the base unit of volume of the CGS system of units, and is a legitimate SI unit. It is equal to a millilitre (ml).
    • The colloquial abbreviations cc and ccm are not SI but are common in some contexts. It is a verbal shorthand for "cubic centimetre". For example 'cc' is commonly used for denoting displacement of car and motorbike engines "the Mini Cooper had a 1275 cc engine". In medicine 'cc' is also common, for example "100 cc of blood loss".
  • A cubic millimetre (mm³) is the volume equal to that of a cube with edges of 1 millimetre. It is equal to a microlitre (µl).
SI derived unit cubic metre, from base unit metre Orders of magnitude for volume Conversion of units for volume
1 E-45  =1 fm³ 1 E-36  =1 pm³ 1 E-27  =1 nm³ 1 E-18  =1 µm³ 1 E-9  =1 mm³ 1 E0  =1 m³ 1 E+9  =1 km³ 1 E+18  =1 Mm³ 1 E+27  =1 Gm³ 1 E+36  =1 Tm³ 1 E+45  =1 Pm³
10 fm³ 10 pm³ 10 nm³ 10 µm³ 10 mm³ 10 m³ 10 km³ 10 Mm³ 10 Gm³ 10 Tm³ 1 E+50 
100 fm³ 100 pm³ 100 nm³ 100 µm³ 100 mm³ 100 m³ 100 km³ 100 Mm³ 100 Gm³ 100 Tm³ 1 E+54  =1 Em³
1,000 fm³ 1,000 pm³ 1,000 nm³ 1,000 µm³ 1,000 mm³ =1 cm³ 1,000 m³ =1 dam³ 1,000 km³ 1,000 Mm³ 1,000 Gm³ 1,000 Tm³ 1 E+60 
10,000 fm³ 10,000 pm³ 10,000 nm³ 10,000 µm³ 10,000 mm³ =10 cm³ 10,000 m³ =10 dam³ 10,000 km³ 10,000 Mm³ 10,000 Gm³ 10,000 Tm³ 1 E+63  =1 Zm³
100,000 fm³ 100,000 pm³ 100,000 nm³ 100,000 µm³ 100,000 mm³ =100 cm³ 100,000 m³ =100 dam³ 100,000 km³ 100,000 Mm³ 100,000 Gm³ 100,000 Tm³ 1 E+70 
1,000,000 fm³ 1,000,000 pm³ 1,000,000 nm³ 1,000,000 µm³ 1,000,000 mm³ =1 dm³ 1,000,000 m³ =1 hm³ 1,000,000 km³ 1,000,000 Mm³ 1,000,000 Gm³ 1,000,000 Tm³ 1 E+72  =1 Ym³
10,000,000 fm³ 10,000,000 pm³ 10,000,000 nm³ 10,000,000 µm³ 10,000,000 mm³ =10 dm³ 10,000,000 m³ =10 hm³ 10,000,000 km³ 10,000,000 Mm³ 10,000,000 Gm³ 10,000,000 Tm³ 1 E+80 
100,000,000 fm³ 100,000,000 pm³ 100,000,000 nm³ 100,000,000 µm³ 100,000,000 mm³ =100 dm³ 100,000,000 m³ =100 hm³ 100,000,000 km³ 100,000,000 Mm³ 100,000,000 Gm³ 100,000,000 Tm³
1 E-6  = 1 cm³ = 1 mL = 1 E-3 L • 1 E-5  = 10 cm³ = 1 cL = 1 E-2 L • 1 E-4  = 100 cm³ = 1 dL = 1 E-1 L • 1 E-3  = 1 dm³ = 1 L = 1 E0 L • 1 E-2  = 10 dm³ = 1 daL = 1E+1L • 1 E-1  = 100 dm³ = 1 hL = 1E+2L • 1 E0  = 1 m³ = 1 kL = 1E+3L

See also

  • stere
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cubic_metre". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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