Newtons to Sthènes (N to sn)

1 newton equals 0.001 sthènes exactly.

How to convert newtons to sthènes

To convert newtons to sthènes, multiply the number of newtons by 0.001. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply sthènes by 1,000.

sthènes = newtons × 0.001

Example: 10 newtons = 0.01 sthènes.

About these units

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

Sthène (sn)

French (Ancien Régime)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

Exactly 1,000 newtons. The force unit of the old French meter-tonne-second (MTS) system, in use from 1919 until the SI.

The word sthène comes from the Ancient Greek sthenos, meaning force or strength. A British Association committee proposed the unit in 1876 under the name funal, and by 1914 it was being called the sthène. France made it legal in 1919 as the force unit of the metre-tonne-second (MTS) system, and a 1920 report in Scientific American Monthly noted the adoption.

One sthène is the force that gives a mass of one tonne an acceleration of one metre per second squared, so it equals exactly 1,000 newtons, or one kilonewton. In older units that is about 101.97 kilograms-force or 224.8 pounds-force. It was meant for engineering work where the newton, or its CGS predecessor the dyne, gave awkwardly small or large numbers.

The Soviet Union also used the MTS system between 1933 and 1955. It was later abandoned in favour of the metre-kilogram-second system and superseded by the SI, in which the same force is simply written as a kilonewton. Related MTS units include the pièze for pressure and the sthène-metre for energy.

1 sthène = 1,000 newtons (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Sthène; Wikipedia: Metre-tonne-second system of units

Related conversions

See all force units.