Drams to Pounds (dr to lb)
1 dram equals 0.00390625 pounds exactly.
How to convert drams to pounds
To convert drams to pounds, multiply the number of drams by 0.00390625. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply pounds by 256.
pounds = drams × 0.00390625
Example: 10 drams = 0.0390625 pounds.
About these units
Dram (dr)
One sixteenth of an ounce (1.7718 g). Used mainly for small quantities of powder.
Greek coinage lies behind this small weight: dram is a form of drachma, a coin that was also a unit of mass in ancient Greece. An Attic drachma weighed about 4.37 grams and a Roman one about 3.41 grams. The avoirdupois dram is smaller than both, one sixteenth of an ounce or one 256th of a pound, which is exactly 1.7718451953125 grams, or about 27.34 grains.
A different dram existed in medicine. The apothecaries' dram is an eighth of an apothecaries' ounce and equals 60 grains, or exactly 3.8879346 grams, and it was common in American pharmacy until the mid-twentieth century. After Britain's Weights and Measures Act 1878 the spellings split by about 1900, with dram for the avoirdupois unit and drachm for the apothecaries' one. Today the avoirdupois dram survives mainly in shotgun shell ratings, expressed in drams of black powder equivalent. As a loose word for a small measure of whisky, it has drifted away from the weight altogether.
1 dram = 0.001771845195 kilograms (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Dram (unit)
Pound (lb)
Exactly 0.45359237 kg, divided into 16 ounces. The standard unit of weight in the US and common in the UK.
Why is pound abbreviated lb? The answer is Roman. The English word comes from the Latin libra pondo, roughly the weight measured in libra, and the symbol keeps the first word. The Roman libra was divided into 12 unciae. The avoirdupois pound of 16 ounces came into general use around 1300 and was initially equal to 6,992 troy grains; under Elizabeth I it was redefined as 7,000 grains. The UK's Weights and Measures Act 1878 set the imperial standard pound as a platinum cylinder, and the troy pound was abolished for trade the following year.
Today the pound is defined from the kilogram. The International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959 fixed it at exactly 0.45359237 kg, and the UK's Weights and Measures Act 1963 wrote the same figure into law. Pounds remain the everyday unit for body weight, groceries and shipping in the United States and are widely used in the UK. The word also survives in odd places: a six-pounder cannon was named for the weight of its shot, not its own.
1 pound = 0.45359237 kilograms (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Pound (mass); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (mass conversions)
Related conversions
- Pounds to drams (reverse)
- Drams to kilograms
- Drams to grams
- Drams to metric tons
- Drams to ounces
- Kilograms to pounds
- Grams to pounds
- Metric tons to pounds
- Ounces to pounds
- Milligrams to pounds
- Micrograms to pounds
- Carats to pounds
- Stone to pounds
- Short tons to pounds
- Long tons to pounds
- Troy ounces to pounds
- Daltons to pounds
See all weight & mass units.