Volume
Volume is measured in cubic units, such as cubic inches or cubic centimeters. A cubic unit can be thought of as a cube that is 1 unit on each side, and the volume of a solid can be thought of as the number of such cubes that can be placed inside it, allowing for fractions of these cubes if necessary. In addition, the weights of solids made of the same material are proportional to their volumes since volume is the amount of "stuff" an object is made of.
The following box has a perimeter (all 6 edges) of 36 cm, an area of 52 cm2 (the total of the front, back, top, bottom, left, and right sides) and a volume of 24 cm3 (two layers of 12 cubes per layer):
As with area, when you convert units of measure, the units of volume are cubes of the units of length. For example, 1 cubic foot is equal to 1728 cubic inches, because 123 = 1728.
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Date last modified: May 28, 2009.
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