Metric Tablespoons to Cubic Inches (tbsp to in³)

1 metric tablespoon equals 0.9153561614 cubic inches (rounded).

1 metric tablespoon = 0.9153561614 cubic inches

How to convert metric tablespoons to cubic inches

To convert metric tablespoons to cubic inches, multiply the number of metric tablespoons by 0.9153561614. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply cubic inches by 1.092470933 (rounded).

cubic inches = metric tablespoons × 0.9153561614

Example: 10 metric tablespoons = 9.153561614 cubic inches.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Metric Tablespoon (tbsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 15 mL, used in most countries.

Fifteen milliliters is the working size of the tablespoon in most of the world, and it is a rounded figure. Older customary values were about 14.8 mL for the US and about 14.2 mL for the UK, and modern UK and US measuring spoons are both treated as 15 mL in most contexts. The tablespoon itself dates to the early 1700s, when it first appeared in place settings for soup.

The 15 mL spoon is a staple in recipes everywhere. Three metric teaspoons make a tablespoon, and 16 and two thirds make a 250 mL metric cup. Australia is the notable exception, using a 20 milliliter tablespoon and counting four teaspoons to it, so a recipe from one country can taste off in another. Check which spoon a cook has in mind: scoops of oil, honey or baking powder amount to a third more in Australia.

1 metric tablespoon = 0.015 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Cubic Inch (in³)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

Exactly 16.387064 mL. Used for engine displacement in the US and for small mechanical parts.

Cubic inch is a unit defined by a ruler. Take an inch, build a cube, and its volume is exactly 16.387064 milliliters under the modern definition of the inch as 25.4 millimeters. Its main role in history is as the building block behind other US volumes: the US gallon is defined as 231 cubic inches, so a cubic inch is exactly 1/231 of a gallon. Even the 42-gallon oil barrel works out to precisely 9,702 of them.

The cubic inch survives most visibly in American engines, which are abbreviated c.i.d. for cubic inch displacement, while the rest of the world and many modern automakers speak in liters. A 5.7 liter engine is about 350 cubic inches, a conversion made easy by the exact factor of 16.387064. Small mechanical parts are also sized in cubic inches in North America.

1 cubic inch = 0.016387064 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cubic inch; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume

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