Material Calculator - Specific Volume, Density, Volume, Mass

Convert specific volume and density or calculate from volume and mass. Density is mass per volume, the specific volume is its inverse, volume per mass. Enter specific volume or density to calculate the other value. Or enter two other values to calculate the remaining two values. Choose the units cm, g, or m, kg, or each unit individually and press Calculate.

The formulas for the calculation are:
ρ = m / V = 1 / v
v = V / M = 1 / ρ

Examples: paper typically has a specific volume of about 1.6 cm³/g. This equates to a density of 0.625 g/cm³. So one kilogram of paper has a volume of 1.6 liters. One cubic meter of air at sea level has a mass of about 1.25 kilograms. The specific volume of this air is therefore 0.8 m³/kg.

The SI unit of specific volume is cubic meter per kilogram, m³/kg. Cubic centimeter per gram, cm³/g, is also permitted. 1 m³/kg = 1000 cm³/g. For gases, to which the specific volume often refers, cubic meter per kilogram is the more common unit.
The density can also be referred to as specific mass. The specific volume becomes lower the denser a substance is and, conversely, the higher it becomes the lower the density. Gases therefore have a high specific volume, while heavy metals have a low one. Density is used much more frequently. The specific volume is used, for example, in the thermodynamic description of gases and vapors. p-v diagrams for illustrating process sequences when the pressure changes work with the pressure p and the specific volume v.