Everything about Kilogram-force totally explained
The unit
kilogram-force (
kgf, often just
kg) or
kilopond (
kp) is defined as the
force exerted by
Earth's gravity on one
kilogram of
mass. Although the gravitational pull of the Earth varies as a function of position on earth, it's here defined as exactly 9.80665
m/s². So one kilogram-force is by definition equal to 9.80665
newtons.
The kilogram-force has never been a part of the
International System of Units (SI), which was introduced in 1960. The SI unit of force is the
newton.
Prior to this, the unit was widely used in much of the world; it's still in use for some purposes. The thrust of a rocket engine, for example, was measured in kilograms-force in 1940s Germany, in the Soviet Union (where it remained the primary unit for thrust in the Russian space program until at least the late 1980s), and it's still used today in China and sometimes by the European Space Agency.
It is also used for tension of
bicycle spokes, for
torque measured in "meter-kilograms", for pressure in kilograms per square centimeter, for the draw weight of bows in archery, and to define the "metric
horsepower" (PS) as 75 m·kgf/s.
Grams-force and kilograms-force were never well-defined units until the
CGPM adopted a
standard acceleration of gravity of 980.665 cm/s² for this purpose in 1901, though they'd been used in low-precision measurements of force before that time.
A
tonne-force,
metric ton-force,
megagram-force, or
megapond (
Mp) is 1000 kilograms-force.
The
decanewton (
daN) is used in some fields as an approximation to the kilogram-force, being exactly rather than approximately 10 newtons.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kilogram-force'.
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