Each Converter

Each Converter

To convert between commonly used units, use this converter. To create the conversion, choose the current unit in the left column, the target unit in the right column, and then enter a value in the left column.

Different Unit Systems

Systems of units, defined as a collection of units of measurement with rules relating them to one another, have been utilised historically in various ways. Measurements of length, weight, and volume are examples of quantities whose magnitudes are defined and used as units of measurement for other quantities of the same type.

Many measurement systems in the past were localised and may be determined by arbitrary criteria like the size of a king's thumb. While this might be effective locally, it makes communication challenging regarding trade and science since other people may not be able to relate to or grasp the systems of units you use. As a result, the creation of more common and reliable systems evolved. The metric system, the imperial system, and the US customary units are some of the methods of units currently in use.

The current standard metric system, known as the International System of Units (SI), has seven base units: length, mass, time, temperature, electric current, luminous intensity, and amount of substance. Even though the SI is virtually always used in science (including in the US), some nations, including the US, continue to use their system of units. This is partial because utilising a standardised system could provide benefits that outweigh the financial and cultural difficulties associated with changing a measurement system. Since US customary units (USC) are still widely used in the US and SI is already adopted in most applications where standardisation is crucial, it is doubtful that this trend will alter. As a result, multiple unit converters are available and will continue to be so to enable successful communication between individuals around the world using various measurements.

Background on the Pound

The Middle East and Spain had a golden age of Arab civilisation in the eighth and ninth centuries of the Common Era (CE). Since a minted coin could not be easily chopped or shaved to lessen its weight, the Arabs employed coins as a measurement of units of weight. This established a measurable benchmark. They employed a silver dirhem coin, which had a weight roughly comparable to 45 fully grown grains of barley, as a basic unit of measurement. A Wukryeh, or uncia in Latin, was equal to ten dirhems and is the source of the English word "ounce."

Trade from the Mediterranean region eventually reached Europe, especially the northern German City States. This led to a pound, 16 ounces of silver, or 7200 grains, becoming a widely accepted unit of measurement.

While King Offa reduced the weight of the pound to 5400 grains to utilise smaller coins, England also adopted this measure. This was due to a lack of silver. When William the Conqueror eventually took over as king of England, he continued to use the 5400-grain pound for coinage but switched back to the 7200-grain pound for other uses.

Although several nations adopted the pound after that, including England (where the British pound sterling, or GBP, was equivalent to one pound weight of silver during King Offa's reign), the avoirdupois weight system wasn't used until the 16th century, under Queen Elizabeth. Its name was taken from the French expression "avoir de pois," and it was a system based on the weight of coal (goods of weight or property). The avoirdupois weighed the same as 7,000 grains, 256 drams of 27.344 grains each, or 16 ounces of 437 1/2 grains. The avoirdupois pound has been formally defined at 0.45359237 kilos in most English-speaking nations since 1959.