Megapascals to PSI (MPa to psi)
1 megapascal equals 145.0377377 pounds per square inch (rounded).
How to convert megapascals to pounds per square inch
To convert megapascals to pounds per square inch, multiply the number of megapascals by 145.0377377. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply pounds per square inch by 0.006894757293 (rounded).
pounds per square inch = megapascals × 145.0377377
Example: 10 megapascals = 1,450.377377 pounds per square inch.
About these units
Megapascal (MPa)
One million pascals. Used for material strength and hydraulic pressure.
Engineers reach for the megapascal because the pascal is far too small for solid materials. It is the preferred unit in engineering for stiffness and for tensile or compressive strength, and stiffness figures go on to gigapascals: aluminium is given as 69 GPa, structural steel as 200 GPa, and diamond as 1,220 GPa.
Fluid systems live in the same range. One megapascal is 10 bar, so scuba tanks filled to about 200 bar sit at 20 MPa, and fixed industrial hydraulic machinery commonly working at around 300 bar runs at about 30 MPa. A kilobar, used in experimental petrology, is 100 MPa.
For comparison with units from the pounds-and-inches world, one psi is about 6.895 kPa, so a megapascal is about 145 psi.
1 megapascal = 1,000,000 pascals (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Pascal (unit); Wikipedia: Bar (unit); Wikipedia: Pounds per square inch
Pound Per Square Inch (psi)
About 6,894.757 pascals. The common unit for tire pressure, hydraulics and gas pipelines in the US.
Unlike most pressure units, psi has no namesake: it simply spells out its own definition, one pound-force acting on one square inch, and it is based on avoirdupois units. Used mainly in the United States, it is about 6.895 kilopascals.
The letters after the unit matter. Psia is measured against a vacuum, while psig is measured against the surrounding air, so at sea level, where the atmosphere is about 14.7 psi, you add that amount to a gauge reading to get an absolute one. A bicycle tire at 65 psig is therefore at 79.7 psia, and the label psid means a difference between two pressures rather than a reference to ambient air.
Typical automobile tires are listed at about 32 psig, and road racing bicycle tires at about 120 psig. One standard atmosphere is 14.696 psi, which gives a feel for how many multiples of sea-level air those tire pressures represent.
1 pound per square inch = 6,894.757293 pascals (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Pounds per square inch; Wikipedia: Standard atmosphere (unit)
Related conversions
- PSI to megapascals (reverse)
- Megapascals to pascals
- Megapascals to kilopascals
- Megapascals to bars
- Megapascals to standard atmospheres
- Megapascals to hectopascals
- Megapascals to millibars
- Megapascals to torr
- Megapascals to millimeters of mercury
- Megapascals to inches of mercury
- Pascals to PSI
- Kilopascals to PSI
- Bars to PSI
- Standard atmospheres to PSI
- Hectopascals to PSI
- Millibars to PSI
- Torr to PSI
- Millimeters of mercury to PSI
- Inches of mercury to PSI
- Gigapascals to PSI
- Kilopounds per square inch to PSI
- Millimeters of water to PSI
See all pressure units.