PSI to Megapascals (psi to MPa)
1 pound per square inch equals 0.006894757293 megapascals (rounded).
How to convert pounds per square inch to megapascals
To convert pounds per square inch to megapascals, multiply the number of pounds per square inch by 0.006894757293. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply megapascals by 145.0377377 (rounded).
megapascals = pounds per square inch × 0.006894757293
Example: 10 pounds per square inch = 0.06894757293 megapascals.
About these units
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)
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
Related conversions
- Megapascals to PSI (reverse)
- PSI to pascals
- PSI to kilopascals
- PSI to bars
- PSI to standard atmospheres
- PSI to hectopascals
- PSI to millibars
- PSI to torr
- PSI to millimeters of mercury
- PSI to inches of mercury
- PSI to gigapascals
- PSI to kilopounds per square inch
- PSI to millimeters of water
- Pascals to megapascals
- Kilopascals to megapascals
- Bars to megapascals
- Standard atmospheres to megapascals
- Hectopascals to megapascals
- Millibars to megapascals
- Torr to megapascals
- Millimeters of mercury to megapascals
- Inches of mercury to megapascals
See all pressure units.