How to Calculate Cubic Feet: What Is a Cubic Foot?

A cubic foot (abbreviated as cu ft. or cubic ft.) is an imperial unit of measurement for the volume of a space or three-dimensional object. Professionals commonly use cubic feet, cubic yards, and cubic meters in construction and landscaping projects to find the total volume of fill materials, like dirt or concrete, they will need to complete a task. For instance, when pouring concrete, you can use a cubic yards calculator to determine the amount of concrete you need to order since cubic yards are the standard unit of volume for this material.

If you want to calculate cubic feet, several online versions of a cubic feet calculator can expedite your volume calculation. Many of these digital tools are free to use and often have a volume converter function that will quickly adjust your number of cubic feet to different units of measurement. You can also use an online unit conversion tool to switch decimal measurements to fractions if you need to.

If you prefer to or have to calculate cubic footage by hand, you can find cubic feet by multiplying three linear measurements—length, width, and height—in feet. For instance, to find the volume of a cube, you would calculate the following: length x width x height. The product of this formula will return the volume of an object in total cubic feet (CFT).

Since straight lines and right angles do not define the world, adjusting your volume formula to the shape you are measuring is important. Here are four common formulas you can use to quickly calculate the volume of various objects (even complicated cuboids with multiple faces and angles):

1. 1. Square feet: You can find the area or square footage of a space by multiplying the length and width. Then multiply this figure by the height to find the cubic space, or cubic footage, within the object.
2. 2. Cubic inches: After you have calculated the cubic footage of an object, you can convert this measurement to inches by multiplying the number by twelve. Since there are twelve inches to a foot, you can convert inches to feet by dividing the number of cubic inches by twelve.
3. 3. Cubic centimeters: One cubic foot equals 28,316.8 cubic centimeters. This is not a simple number to remember, so you might want to use an online calculator, especially when you are converting between imperial and metric systems. Multiply your cubic feet by 28,316.8 to return the total number of cubic centimeters.
4. 4. Cubic feet of a cylinder: You can find the volume of a cylinder by multiplying the height in feet of an object by its diameter (distance across a circle) in feet. You then multiply the product by pi (3.14).
   

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