Question

A house is $50.0$ ft long and $26$ ft wide and has $8.0$ ft high ceilings. What is the volume of the interior of the house in cubic meters and in cubic centimeters?

Answer 1

The volume of the interior of the house is the product of its length, width, and height. We use the conversion $1ft=0.3048m$ and $100cm=1m$.
$V=L\times W\times H$
$=\left(50.0ft\right)\left(\frac{0.3048m}{1ft}\right)\ast \left(26ft\right)\left(\frac{0.3048m}{1ft}\right)\ast \left(8.0ft\right)\left(\frac{0.3048m}{1ft}\right)$
$=294.5m^3=290m^3$
$=\left(294.5m^3\right){\left(\frac{100cm}{1m}\right)}^2=2.9\ast {10}^{8}c{m}^3$
Both the $26$-ft width and $8.0$-ft height of the house have two significant figures, which is why our answer was rounded to $290m^3$.