Cubic metre
The cubic metre (symbol m³) is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. Older equivalents were the stere and the kilolitre. The deprecation of the stere began in 1978, when the CIPM marked it (and several other metric units) as "undesirable" where not already in use, and strongly encouraged their discontinuation; in the United States, it was legally deprecated in 1982 (Federal Register, February 26, 1982, 47 FR 8399-8400) [1] [2].
A cubic metre is equal to:
- 1,000 litres
- 1,000 cubic decimetres
- 1,000,000 cubic centimetres
- ~35.3 cubic feet (a cubic foot is exactly 0.028 316 846 592 m³)
- ~1.31 cubic yards (a cubic yard is exactly 0.764 554 857 984 m³)
- ~6.29 oil barrels (a bbl is exactly 0.158 987 294 928 m³)
A cubic metre of pure water at a temperature of 3.98 °C (degrees Celsius) and standard atmospheric pressure has a mass of 999.972 kg (nearly one tonne).
It is abbreviated m3 when superscripts aren't available (i.e. when there is no "³" key).
cubic decimetre << cubic metre << cubic kilometre
Multiples and supmultiples
- A cubic decimetre (symbol dm³) is the volume of a cube of side length 1 decimetre (10 cm).
- 1 cubic decimetre is equal to 1 litre. See 1 E-3 m³ for a comparison with other volumes.
- The old definition was the volume of 1 kilogram of pure water at 4 degrees Celsius and 760 mm of mercury pressure, (or approximately 1.76 imperial pints or 1.057 U.S. liquid quarts).
- 1 E-3 m³ for a comparison with other volumes.
- 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.
- The abbreviation cc, although not part of SI, is common in some contexts in English, particularly in American medicine (e.g. "300 cc of crystalloid is required to compensate for each 100 cc of blood loss"). It is also commonly used for denoting displacement of car and motorbike engines (e.g. "the Mini Cooper had a 1275 cc engine", "the 750 cc Superbike race"). Scientists and engineers often use older units that they are used to, in order to utilise their sense of expected magnitudes to catch errors in their calculations (although they may engender errors when communicating to others). Many astrophysicists tend to use the older CGS (centimetre, gram, second) units, while American aerospace engineers often work on vibration problems with forces in pounds and accelerations in inches per square second, as well as altitudes in feet or nautical miles.
- the "cc" is sometimes also abbreviated as ccm in European countries.
- A cubic millimetre (mm³) is a metric unit of volume, equal to that enclosed by a cube whose edges each measure one millimetre (mm). It is one thousand times smaller than a cubic centimeter, or one thousand million times smaller than a cubic metre.
- A cubic kilometre (symbol km³) is the volume of a cube of side length 1 kilometre (1000 metres).
- 1 E9 m³ for a comparison with other volumes.
- A cubic megametre (American spelling: cubic megameter) (symbol Mm³) is the volume of a cube with edges 1 megametre (106 m) in length.
- 1 Mm³ is the volume of the Pacific Ocean
- the total volume of all oceans on Earth is 1.37 Mm³
- the volume of Earth is 1083.2 Mm³
- See 1 E18 m³ for a comparison with other volumes.