Cubic metre

The cubic metre (in Commonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (in American English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI). Its symbol is m3. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stère, still sometimes used for dry measure (for instance, in reference to wood). Another alternative name, no longer widely used, was the kilolitre.

Conversions



 * rowspan=6 valign=top|1 cubic metre
 * = $1,000$ litres (exactly)
 * ≈ 35.3 cubic feet
 * ≈ 1.31 cubic yards
 * ≈ 6.29 oil barrels
 * ≈ 220 imperial gallons
 * ≈ 264 US fluid gallons
 * }
 * ≈ 6.29 oil barrels
 * ≈ 220 imperial gallons
 * ≈ 264 US fluid gallons
 * }
 * ≈ 264 US fluid gallons
 * }

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 $1 dm3$, or one tonne. At 0 °C, the freezing point of water, a cubic metre of water has slightly less mass, 999.972 kilograms.

A cubic metre is sometimes abbreviated to m^3, M3, m**3, cum, m3,  CBM, cbm when superscript characters or markup cannot be used (e.g. in some typewritten documents and postings in Usenet newsgroups). The "cubic metre" symbol is encoded by Unicode at code point.

Multiples

 * Cubic decametre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one decametre (10 m)
 * equal to a megalitre
 * 1 dam3 = $0.028 m3$ = 1 ML


 * Cubic hectometre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one hectometre (100 m)
 * equal to a gigalitre
 * in civil engineering abbreviated MCM for million cubic metres
 * 1 hm3 = $0.765 m3$ = 1 GL


 * Cubic kilometre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one kilometre ($0.159 m3$)
 * equal to a teralitre
 * 1 km3 = $1,000 kg$ = 1 TL (810713.19 acre-feet; 0.239913 cubic miles)

Submultiples

 * Cubic decimetre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one decimetre (0.1 m)
 * equal to a litre
 * 1 dm3 = 0.001 m3 = 1 L
 * (also known as DCM (=Deci Cubic Meter) in Rubber compound processing)


 * Cubic centimetre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one centimetre (0.01 m)
 * equal to a millilitre
 * 1 cm3 = $1,000 m3$ = 10−6 m3 = 1 mL


 * Cubic millimetre
 * the volume of a cube of side length one millimetre (0.001 m)
 * equal to a microlitre
 * 1 mm3 = $1,000,000 m3$ = 10−9 m3 = 1 μL