The cubic metre (inCommonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (inAmerican English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI).[1] Its symbol is m3.[1] 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.
| Cubic metre | |
|---|---|
One cubic metre of concrete (representing the world annual production per inhabitant).
| |
| General information | |
| Unit system | SI |
| Unit of | volume |
| Symbol | m3 |
| 1 cubic metre | = 1000 litres (exactly)[2][3] |
| ≈ 35.3 cubic feet | |
| ≈ 1.31 cubic yards | |
| ≈ 6.29 oil barrels | |
| ≈ 220 imperial 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 massof1000 kg, 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 charactersormarkup 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 U+33A5 ㎥ SQUARE M CUBED.[4]