Kilogram-force Meters to Calories (kgf⋅m to cal)

1 kilogram-force meter equals 2.343845602 calories (rounded).

1 kilogram-force meter = 2.343845602 calories

How to convert kilogram-force meters to calories

To convert kilogram-force meters to calories, multiply the number of kilogram-force meters by 2.343845602. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply calories by 0.4266492635 (rounded).

calories = kilogram-force meters × 2.343845602

Example: 10 kilogram-force meters = 23.43845602 calories.

The 'calorie' on food labels is really a kilocalorie. The thermochemical calorie (4.184 J) is used here unless marked IT.

About these units

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.

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.

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

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

Calorie (cal)

ScientificTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The thermochemical calorie: exactly 4.184 joules, the energy to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Not the same as the food Calorie, which is a kilocalorie.

Latin calor, meaning heat, supplied the name. Nicolas Clement used it in lectures on heat engines between 1819 and 1824, and by 1852 Pierre Favre and Jean Silbermann applied it to the small unit based on a single gram of water warmed by one degree Celsius. Because the specific heat of water varies slightly with temperature, early calories differed from one laboratory to the next. A mean value near 4.1855 J was published for the 15 degree calorie in 1950, with an uncertainty of 0.0005 J.

Chemists settled the matter by definition. The thermochemical calorie is exactly 4.184 J, which is the figure used here, and NIST lists it with that exact value. The calorie is not an SI unit and is regarded as obsolete, since the ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1948 preferred the joule for heat. One thousand of these calories make a kilocalorie, the larger unit used for food, and a slightly larger calorie, the International Table version of 4.1868 J, is used in steam tables.

1 calorie = 4.184 joules (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Calorie; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 (energy conversion factors)

Related conversions

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