| Cubic decimeters (dm³) | US Gallons (gal US) |
|---|---|
| 1 Cubic decimeter | 0.264172052358 gal US |
| 2 Cubic decimeters | 0.528344104716 gal US |
| 3 Cubic decimeters | 0.792516157074 gal US |
| 4 Cubic decimeters | 1.05668820943 gal US |
| 5 Cubic decimeters | 1.32086026179 gal US |
| 10 Cubic decimeters | 2.64172052358 gal US |
| 20 Cubic decimeters | 5.28344104716 gal US |
| 25 Cubic decimeters | 6.60430130895 gal US |
| 50 Cubic decimeters | 13.2086026179 gal US |
| 100 Cubic decimeters | 26.4172052358 gal US |
| Reference | Cubic decimeters (dm³) | US Gallons (gal US) |
|---|---|---|
| A teaspoon | 0.005 dm³ | 0.00132086 gal US |
| A can of soft drink | 0.33 dm³ | 0.0871768 gal US |
| A wine bottle | 0.75 dm³ | 0.198129 gal US |
| A bathtub | 150 dm³ | 39.6258 gal US |
| An Olympic swimming pool | 2500000 dm³ | 660430 gal US |
The cubic decimetre is a unit of volume equal to one thousandth of a cubic metre, written dm³. It is the volume of a cube ten centimetres on each side, and since 1964 it has been the exact definition of the litre. The two are the same quantity, and the choice between them is the clearest example in the whole metric system of a name being chosen for what it does to a calculation.
Chemistry prefers the cubic decimetre for a specific reason. Concentration is written in moles per cubic decimetre, and every other quantity in the same calculation is expressed in metres, kilograms and seconds or their prefixed forms. Keeping volume as a length cubed means the units in an equation cancel by inspection, without anyone having to remember that a litre is a thousandth of a cubic metre.
That is why British and Commonwealth chemistry teaching writes mol dm⁻³ where American teaching writes molar. A one molar solution and a one mole per cubic decimetre solution are identical, but only the second form makes the dimensions visible. Students trained on it can check an answer by looking at the units, which is the most reliable error-catching habit in quantitative chemistry.
Gas volumes follow the same convention. One mole of an ideal gas occupies 22.4 cubic decimetres at zero degrees Celsius and one atmosphere, and about 24.0 cubic decimetres at room temperature, so a reaction stoichiometry converts to a measurable volume in one step. These are among the most quoted numbers in school chemistry, and they are almost always written in dm³ rather than in litres.
Elsewhere the litre wins easily. Nobody buys fuel, milk or paint in cubic decimetres, and no drink label carries the symbol, because the litre name is shorter, older and understood by everyone. The cubic decimetre survives where a formula rather than a customer is reading the number.
The relationship to its neighbours is worth keeping straight because of the cubing. A cubic decimetre holds a thousand cubic centimetres, not a hundred, and a thousand cubic decimetres make a cubic metre. Each step in length is a factor of ten and each step in volume a factor of a thousand, which is the source of most errors made with this unit.
One cubic decimetre equals 1 litre, 1000 cubic centimetres, 0.001 cubic metres, or about 61.02 cubic inches.
The United States gallon is a unit of volume equal to exactly 231 cubic inches, or 3.785411784 litres. Its symbol is gal US. It contains four quarts, eight liquid pints and 128 United States fluid ounces, and it is about a fifth smaller than the imperial gallon still used in Britain and Ireland.
It is older than its British rival. The figure of 231 cubic inches comes from the English wine gallon standardised in 1707 under Queen Anne, which was the common measure across the American colonies. When Britain abolished its several gallons in 1824 and replaced them with a single imperial gallon based on ten pounds of water, the United States simply kept the one it already had, and the two systems have diverged ever since.
Fuel makes it the most politically visible unit in American life. The price of a gallon of gasoline is quoted daily, watched by governments and used as shorthand for the cost of living, and vehicle efficiency is stated in miles per gallon on every window sticker. Because the American gallon is smaller, a car rated at 30 miles per gallon in the United States would be described as 36 in Britain, which is the same car and the same fuel.
The petroleum industry counts in a multiple of it. The barrel of crude oil is defined as 42 United States gallons, a figure fixed in the Pennsylvania oil fields in the 1860s when a 40-gallon barrel plus two gallons of allowance for leakage became the trade standard. Every published figure for world oil production and reserves rests on that convention.
Domestic quantities follow the same measure. Milk, paint, water for the garden, propane and swimming pool chemistry are all sold and dosed by the gallon in the United States, and a gallon of fresh water weighs 8.34 pounds against the imperial gallon's ten. That difference in weight is a useful check when a figure of uncertain origin needs to be identified.
Care with labelling matters when the two gallons meet. A liquid described simply as a gallon in an American document is 3.785 litres and in a British one 4.546, and nothing in the word itself distinguishes them. Writing gal US or specifying litres removes an ambiguity that has caused real errors in shipping, aviation and chemical dosing.
One United States gallon equals 3.785411784 litres, 231 cubic inches, 128 US fluid ounces, or about 0.833 imperial gallons.