Pièzes to Pascals (pz to Pa)

1 pièze equals 1,000 pascals exactly.

1 pièze = 1,000 pascals

How to convert pièzes to pascals

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

pascals = pièzes × 1,000

Example: 10 pièzes = 10,000 pascals.

About these units

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

Pascal (Pa)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI unit of pressure: one newton per square meter. A very small unit; atmospheric pressure is about 101,325 Pa.

Blaise Pascal never saw a pascal, because the name was adopted by the 14th CGPM in 1971 for the newton per square meter. He did, however, earn the honor. In 1647 he published experiments on the vacuum, and on 19 September 1648 his brother-in-law Florin Périer carried a mercury barometer up the Puy de Dôme near Clermont, where the column stood at about 23 inches against about 26 at the base. Pascal had reasoned that air pressure should fall with altitude, and the result confirmed it.

One pascal is a tiny pressure, so the unit is mostly met with prefixes. Standard atmospheric pressure is 101,325 Pa, a typical sea-level reading is about 1,013 hPa, and the threshold of hearing in air is taken as a reference pressure of 20 micropascals. Building airtightness tests, in contrast, are run at 50 Pa.

Pascal is also remembered for hydrostatics, where he showed that pressure depends on height difference rather than the weight of the fluid, and for the hydraulic press.

The pascal is the reference unit for pressure on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Pascal (unit); Wikipedia: Blaise Pascal

Related conversions

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