Kilograms to Kin (kg to kin)

1 kilogram equals 1.666666667 kin (rounded).

1 kilogram = 1.666666667 kin

How to convert kilograms to kin

To convert kilograms to kin, multiply the number of kilograms by 1.666666667. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply kin by 0.6.

kin = kilograms × 1.666666667

Example: 10 kilograms = 16.66666667 kin.

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

Kin (kin)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

160 monme, exactly 600 g. A traditional Japanese unit of weight, equal to 600 g.

Kin is the Japanese unit that older English sources call the catty. In Japan it was defined as 160 monme, or 16 hundredths of a kan.

After the 1891 Weights and Measures Act tied the kan to exactly 3.75 kg, the kin became exactly 600 g, which is the figure used here. That makes it about 1.32 pounds, a convenient size for everyday goods bought in modest quantities, and it is still the size commonly used for loaves of bread.

Japan moved to the metric system as the sole legal system from 1959, and trade use of the kin was prohibited. The older unit remains familiar to many Japanese shoppers as a size of 600 g.

1 kin = 0.6 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Kan

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