Kilograms to Catties (Hong Kong) (kg to catty)

1 kilogram equals 1.653466966 catties (Hong Kong) (rounded).

1 kilogram = 1.653466966 catties (Hong Kong)

How to convert kilograms to catties (Hong Kong)

To convert kilograms to catties (Hong Kong), multiply the number of kilograms by 1.653466966. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply catties (Hong Kong) by 0.6047898267 (rounded).

catties (Hong Kong) = kilograms × 1.653466966

Example: 10 kilograms = 16.53466966 catties (Hong Kong).

About these units

Kilogram (kg)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI base unit of mass. Since 2019 it is defined by fixing the value of the Planck constant, replacing the old platinum-iridium cylinder in Paris.

Oddly for a base unit, the kilogram began life as a derived one. In 1793 revolutionary France defined the grave as the mass of one litre of water, and a decree of 1795 then replaced it with the kilogramme, a name built from the Greek khilioi (a thousand) and gramma, a Late Latin word for a small weight. In 1799 a platinum cylinder, the Kilogramme des Archives, became the physical standard, matching a cubic decimetre of water at its densest, around 4 degrees Celsius. In 1889 the metric community adopted a platinum-iridium cylinder made in 1879, the International Prototype of the Kilogram, nicknamed Le Grand K.

The kilogram is still the only SI base unit with a prefix in its name. Because SI forbids stacked prefixes, a millionth of a kilogram is a milligram rather than a microkilogram, so every mass prefix is attached to the gram. Calibrating every national standard against one object in a vault near Paris meant that all of them drifted relative to it, so in November 2018 member states voted to tie the kilogram to a fixed value of the Planck constant. The change took effect on 20 May 2019. Day to day nothing shifted, but the definition no longer depends on a single piece of metal.

The kilogram is the reference unit for weight & mass on this site.

Sources: NIST: Kilogram introduction (SI redefinition); Wikipedia: Kilogram

Catty (Hong Kong) (catty)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 1⅓ pounds (about 604.79 g). The legal Hong Kong catty, used in markets.

Kati, the Malay word behind catty, reached English through traders along the South China coast, and the Hong Kong version is the one most travellers meet in wet markets today. In 1884 Hong Kong law tied the catty to British weights as exactly one and one third avoirdupois pounds. With the pound taken as 0.45359265 kg, that gives 604.78982 g, the figure used here, which is a little over 600 g.

The Hong Kong catty is 16 taels and 100 of them make a picul of about 60.48 kg. That makes it heavier than the 500 g jin of mainland China, where the market system was redefined in 1930 and again in 1959 to ten liang per jin. Chinese weights themselves have wandered, from about 250 g in the Pre-Qin period to about 590 g under the Ming and Qing, with 16 liang per jin throughout. Vegetables, meat and herbs in Hong Kong are still often sold by the catty, and shops in Malaysia and Singapore use almost the same value, 604.79 g and 604.8 g respectively.

1 catty (Hong Kong) = 0.6047898267 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Catty; Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Hong Kong units of measurement

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