Torr to Hectopascals (Torr to hPa)

1 torr equals 1.333223684 hectopascals (rounded).

How to convert torr to hectopascals

To convert torr to hectopascals, multiply the number of torr by 1.333223684. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply hectopascals by 0.7500616827 (rounded).

hectopascals = torr × 1.333223684

Example: 10 torr = 13.33223684 hectopascals.

About these units

Torr (Torr)

ScientificCurrent unit

Exactly 1/760 of a standard atmosphere (about 133.322 Pa), named after Evangelista Torricelli. Used for vacuum measurement.

In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli filled a meter-long tube, sealed at one end, with mercury and stood it in a basin of mercury. The column fell to about 76 cm and left a Torricellian vacuum above it, the first recorded creation of a permanent vacuum. In a letter dated 11 June 1644 he described living at the bottom of a sea of air, an idea that also explained why suction pumps could raise water only about 10 meters.

The torr honors him. It was originally meant to equal one millimeter of mercury at 0 degrees Celsius, but the weight of a mercury column varies with gravity, which changes with elevation and latitude. In 1954 the 10th CGPM defined the standard atmosphere as 101,325 Pa, and the torr was then fixed as exactly one 760th of that, about 133.32 Pa.

Today the torr is mostly met in high-vacuum physics and engineering. It differs from the millimeter of mercury by less than one part in seven million, so the two are interchangeable except in the most exacting work.

1 torr = 133.3223684 pascals (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Torr; Wikipedia: Evangelista Torricelli; Wikipedia: Standard atmosphere (unit)

Hectopascal (hPa)

Metric (SI)Current unit

100 pascals, equal to one millibar. The standard unit in weather forecasts and barometers.

Weather forecasters rarely think in pascals, and the hectopascal exists largely to avoid changing their numbers. When SI arrived, meteorologists generally switched from the millibar to the hectopascal, which equals exactly 100 Pa and exactly one millibar, so existing readings carried over unchanged. Observations are typically reported in hPa, following the World Meteorological Organization recommendation, though many scientific fields dislike the hecto prefix because they prefer steps of 1,000.

A typical sea-level reading is about 1,013 hPa. The lowest non-tornadic pressure ever measured was 870 hPa, in Typhoon Tip on 12 October 1979, and the highest sea-level pressure, 1,084.8 hPa, came at Tosontsengel, Mongolia, on 19 December 2001, at a station above 750 meters. At low altitudes, pressure drops about 12 hPa for every 100 meters you climb.

Aviation weather reports, such as the QNH in a METAR, use hectopascals or millibars in most countries, while the US, Canada and Japan quote altimeter settings in inches of mercury.

1 hectopascal = 100 pascals (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hectopascal; Wikipedia: Atmospheric pressure; Wikipedia: Pascal (unit)

Related conversions

See all pressure units.