Kilogram-force Meter (kgf⋅m)

CGS & old metricHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

Exactly 9.80665 joules, the work of lifting one kilogram by one meter on Earth. Common in older engineering and for torque in Asia.

1 kilogram-force meter = 9.80665 joules (exactly).

About the kilogram-force meter

Kilogram-force meter is the work done when a force of one kilogram-force acts through one meter, a unit of the old gravitational metric system of engineers. Since a kilogram-force is 9.80665 newtons, it equals 9.80665 joules, using the conventional standard gravity adopted in 1901.

Engineers favored it because weights in kilograms could be multiplied directly by heights in meters to give lifting work. The same combination is also used for torque, where NIST lists it against the newton meter with the same factor of 9.80665, and it is sometimes written as kilopond meter.

The kilogram-force was never part of the International System of Units, and the newton replaced it after 1948. Even so, older motor and tool specifications, especially from Asian and European sources, still quote torque in kgf m, and dividing by about ten gives a rough figure in newton meters.

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilogram-force; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors; Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units

Kilogram-force Meter conversion chart

1 kilogram-force meter expressed in every other energy unit:

More CGS & old metric units

• erg (energy)
• erg per second (power)
• technical atmosphere (pressure)
• barye (pressure)
• kilogram-force (force)
• gram-force (force)
• dyne (force)
• tonne-force (force)

All CGS & old metric units

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