Grams-force to Newtons (gf to N)

1 gram-force equals 0.00980665 newtons exactly.

1 gram-force = 0.00980665 newtons

How to convert grams-force to newtons

To convert grams-force to newtons, multiply the number of grams-force by 0.00980665. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply newtons by 101.9716213 (rounded).

newtons = grams-force × 0.00980665

Example: 10 grams-force = 0.0980665 newtons.

About these units

Gram-force (gf)

CGS & old metricTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 0.00980665 newtons. Used for small forces, such as those of delicate sensors and instruments.

Where the kilogram-force suits cables and machines, the gram-force suits fine work. It is a thousandth of a kilogram-force, which makes it exactly 9.80665 millinewtons, and it is the pull of Earth on a one-gram mass under conventional gravity. Small forces such as the contact load of a delicate sensor or the draw of a light spring have often been quoted in grams-force in older specifications.

The origin of the number lies in an 1887 decision by the international weights and measures committee to define a standard value for gravity, corrected to sea level at 45 degrees latitude, built on a measurement made in 1888 at the Bureau in Paris. The 1901 General Conference rounded that to 980.665 cm/s2. NIST tables do not list a plain gram-force, only gram-force per square centimeter at 98.0665 pascals. As a multiple of the dyne, one gram-force is 980.665 dynes. Like its larger relatives it has largely given way to millinewtons.

1 gram-force = 0.00980665 newtons (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilogram-force; Wikipedia: Standard gravity; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors

Newton (N)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI unit of force: the force that accelerates one kilogram by one meter per second squared. About the weight of a small apple.

Isaac Newton gave his name to the unit for his second law of motion, force equals mass times acceleration. Metric engineers needed a force unit that fitted the metre-kilogram-second system, and the CGPM standardized one in 1946; the 9th CGPM in 1948 adopted the name newton, with symbol N. Before that, many metric users measured force in kilograms-force, which confuses weight with mass, and CGS users had the much smaller dyne.

One newton is the force that gives a one-kilogram mass an acceleration of one meter per second every second. For scale, a 200-gram apple weighs about 1.96 N on Earth, so a newton is roughly the weight of a small apple. It equals 100,000 dynes and about 0.225 pound-force. Forces in the thousands are written in kilonewtons. Because the newton is built directly from kilograms, meters and seconds, it slots into formulas for pressure, energy and power without any conversion constants.

The newton is the reference unit for force on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Newton (unit); BIPM: 9th CGPM (1948), Resolution 7; Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units

Related conversions

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