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Cubic Feet to Cubic Meters Volume Converter
↔ Convert m³ to ft³ instead

Common Conversions

ft³ m³
0.1 0.00283
0.5 0.01416
1 0.02832
2 0.05663
5 0.14158
10 0.28317
25 0.70792
50 1.41584
100 2.83168
1000 28.3168

Why this conversion matters in chemistry

Cubic feet creep in any time US-sourced equipment meets a safety calculation done in SI. A 200 ft³ argon cylinder works out to 5.66 m³ — worth knowing when you're sizing an inert-atmosphere glovebox that gets refilled a couple of times a year, or setting ventilation requirements in a room where a cylinder could fail. The factor is 0.0283168 m³/ft³, which drops straight out of 1 ft = 0.3048 m cubed. There's nothing chemically interesting about the arithmetic itself, but you'll reach for it more than you'd expect in any building where imperial ductwork meets metric process design.

Formula

m³ = ft³ × 0.028317

Worked Examples

1 ft³ = 0.02832 m³

The base conversion. Handy to keep in your head as roughly 1/35, or 2.83%.

35.315 ft³ = 1 m³

A cubic meter of gas is a little under 36 cubic feet. This is the mental anchor for everything else.

200 ft³ = 5.66 m³

A standard size-200 compressed gas cylinder. Worth knowing when a ventilation calculation wants the worst-case release volume in SI.

1000 ft³ = 28.317 m³

Roughly the volume of a small walk-in cold room or a generously-sized fume hood enclosure.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert ft³ to m³?
Multiply by 0.0283168. The factor comes from cubing the 1 ft = 0.3048 m length conversion — (0.3048)³ works out to 0.028317 and change. It's one of those factors worth just memorizing if you do this more than occasionally.
Why does this matter for gas safety?
Ventilation engineers tend to think in cubic feet per minute; safety data sheets and SI-trained chemists think in cubic meters. When you're calculating air exchange rates for a room where a cylinder could fail, sloppy conversion is the fast way to underestimate how much fresh air the space actually needs.
What's the rough volume of a typical fume hood?
A six-foot benchtop hood is around 50 to 80 ft³ of internal volume, or 1.4 to 2.3 m³. The face velocity spec usually wants 800 to 1200 cubic feet per minute of exhaust, which is why these calculations come up every time someone commissions a new hood.