Metric Teaspoons to Cubic Centimeters (tsp to cm³)

1 metric teaspoon equals 5 cubic centimeters exactly.

1 metric teaspoon = 5 cubic centimeters

How to convert metric teaspoons to cubic centimeters

To convert metric teaspoons to cubic centimeters, multiply the number of metric teaspoons by 5. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply cubic centimeters by 0.2.

cubic centimeters = metric teaspoons × 5

Example: 10 metric teaspoons = 50 cubic centimeters.

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 Teaspoon (tsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 5 mL, used in most countries.

Five milliliters is the metric teaspoon, a figure so tidy that it has become the working definition for medicine and food labels. The traditional British teaspoon was an imperial fluid drachm, one eighth of an imperial fluid ounce, about 3.55 milliliters, and the American one was 4.93 mL. US nutrition labeling law now defines a teaspoon as exactly 5 milliliters.

The 5 mL teaspoon matters most when dosing medicine. Kitchen spoons vary widely, with one Greek survey of 71 household teaspoons finding volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 mL, so measuring spoons, syringes and calibrated cups are the safer tools. It also anchors the metric cooking system: three teaspoons make a 15 mL tablespoon, and fifty fit in a 250 mL metric cup. Australia keeps a 5 mL teaspoon but counts four of them in its larger 20 mL tablespoon.

1 metric teaspoon = 0.005 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Teaspoon; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Cubic Centimeter (cm³)

Metric (SI)Current unit

Exactly one milliliter. Used for engine displacement (as 'cc') and in medicine.

Cubic centimeter is the volume of a cube one centimeter on each side, and it belonged to the old centimeter-gram-second system of units, in which one cubic centimeter of water was meant to weigh about one gram. Its famous abbreviation, cc, is not an SI symbol at all. The official symbol is cm³, yet cc stuck in medicine, cooking and engineering because it is quick to write and say.

A cubic centimeter equals exactly one milliliter, so the two names are interchangeable and which one you meet depends on the field. Doses are often written in cc. Motorcyclists, scooter makers and engine builders use it for displacement: the swept volume is the bore area times the stroke times the number of cylinders, so a 1,000 cc sport bike can move eight times as much air per cycle as a 125 cc scooter. One cubic inch is 16.38706 cubic centimeters, which lets Americans and Europeans compare engines.

1 cubic centimeter = 0.001 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cubic centimetre; Wikipedia: Litre

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