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Newtons don't convert directly to pounds because the Newton is the SI unit of force, and the pound is a unit of mass.

Mass is different from force or weight, because mass is independent of gravity. Weight is a force and is measured in Newtons and mass is measured in kilograms.

Force = mass x acceleration, F=ma

The confusion comes from the way we often use pounds or kilograms as though we are talking about weight, because we are almost always talking about weight on Earth. Your weight would be different on Earth and on the moon, because these places have different strengths of gravity, but your mass would be the same.

A Newton is defined as the force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kilogram at 1 ms-2. (one metre per second per second)
The pound is an imperial measure and the Newton is an SI unit.
So to compare pounds on Earth to Newtons, we need to convert an imperial unit to an SI unit and a mass to a force.

For the pound to kilogram conversion:
There are ~2.2 (2.204622621...) pounds in 1 kg

For the mass to weight conversion:
On Earth, where the gravitational acceleration is approximately 9.8ms-2, (9.80665002...ms-2), the weight (the force from the gravity of Earth) of an object with a mass of 1kg is ~9.8N.
a= 9.8ms-2
m=1kg
therefore F= m x a = 9.8N

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15y ago

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