Chemistry

Free online chemistry lesson for elementary school, middle school and high school.

 

Mass and volume

Volume and its units

1) What is volume ?

The volume corresponds to the space occupied by an object or substance (solid, liquid or gaseous).

The volume can be calculated for simple geometric shapes such as
- Cubes: Volume = side x side x side
- Parallelepiped: Volume = length x width x height
as well as spheres, cones, pyramids etc..

For objects of more complex shapes, we must make measurements to determine the volume

2) Units of volum: cubic meter

The standard unif of volume is the cubic meter ( symbol m³ ).
A cubic meter corresponds to the space occupied by a cube of side 1 m.

L'unité de volume du système international est le mètre cube de symbole m³
Un mètre cube correspond à l'espace qu'occupe un cube de 1 m de coté.

The volume can also be expressed using multiples of the cubic meter:
- The cubic decameter (dam³)
- The cubic hectometer (hm³)
- The cubic kilometers (km³)
Or using submultiples of the cubic meter:
- The cubic decimeter (dm³)
- The cubic centimeter (cm³)
- The cubic millimeter (mm³)

Each unit is a thousand times greater than the previous one:
1 cubic centimeter is equal to 1000 cubic millimeter.
1 cubic decimeter is equal to 1000 cubic centimeter.
1 cubic meter is equal to 1000 cubic decimeter.
etc.

Each quantity expressed in one of these units can also be expressed in any of the other. This change of units can be achieved using a conversion table:

km3

hm3

dam3

m3

dm3

cm3

mm3

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