Kilopascals to Pièzes (kPa to pz)

1 kilopascal equals 1 pièze exactly.

How to convert kilopascals to pièzes

To convert kilopascals to pièzes, multiply the number of kilopascals by 1. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply pièzes by 1.

pièzes = kilopascals × 1

Example: 10 kilopascals = 10 pièzes.

About these units

Kilopascal (kPa)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 pascals. Used for tire pressures, weather reports in many countries and engineering.

Kilopascal is the form of the pascal that most people actually use. The pascal itself is very small, so outside meteorology the kilopascal became the common choice in most fields, and it equals one centibar. Medical elastography reports tissue stiffness in kPa, and Canada reports atmospheric pressure in kPa rather than hectopascals.

A standard atmosphere is 101.325 kPa. In 1982 IUPAC recommended a different reference for chemistry, a standard pressure of exactly 100 kPa, which split the older convention of 1 atm into two competing standards.

Blood pressure shows how the units line up. One mmHg is 0.13332 kPa, and a normal reading is below about 16.0 kPa systolic and 10.7 kPa diastolic, the same thing as the familiar 120 over 80 in millimeters of mercury.

1 kilopascal = 1,000 pascals (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Pascal (unit); Wikipedia: Standard atmosphere (unit); Wikipedia: Millimetre of mercury

Pièze (pz)

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

Exactly 1,000 pascals (1 kPa): the pressure unit of the old French meter-tonne-second (MTS) system.

French metrologists coined the pièze, symbol pz, for pressure in the metre-tonne-second (MTS) system, which was France's legal system from 1919 to 1961. The Soviet Union adopted the same system in 1933 and abolished it in 1955. The name is French, and Wikipedia does not explain its origin further.

The MTS system used large units suited to industry rather than laboratories, and the pièze follows that pattern. It is defined as one sthène of force per square metre, which works out to exactly 1,000 pascals, or one kilopascal. That is the same as 10 millibars or one centibar, about 7.5 torr, and roughly 0.145 pounds per square inch.

Compared with everyday pressures, one pièze is about one hundredth of standard atmospheric pressure, so steam boilers and hydraulic machinery of the period would be quoted in tens or hundreds of pièzes. The unit disappeared with the MTS system, and the kilopascal now fills the same role.

1 pièze = 1,000 pascals (exactly).

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

Related conversions

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