Kilograms to Obols (kg to obol)

1 kilogram equals 1,374.255612 obols (rounded).

1 kilogram = 1,374.255612 obols

How to convert kilograms to obols

To convert kilograms to obols, multiply the number of kilograms by 1,374.255612. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply obols by 0.0007276666667 (rounded).

obols = kilograms × 1,374.255612

Example: 10 kilograms = 13,742.55612 obols.

Approximate value. Standards for the obol varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

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

Obol (obol)

Ancient GreekHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

One sixth of a drachma, about 0.73 g.

Before coins, Greek bullion money circulated as iron or bronze rods called obeloi, which literally means spits. Six of them could be held in one hand, and that handful gave the drachma its name. When silver coinage appeared, the small coin worth one rod kept the title obol, so a word for a cooking skewer ended up naming the sixth part of a drachma.

On the Attic standard an obol weighed about 0.72 grams, and the figure used here, 0.7277 g, is simply the drachma figure divided by six. Surviving coins vary, and the Aeginetic obol was heavier, near 1.05 grams. Each obol was in turn split into four tetartemoria of about 0.18 grams. The obol was the small change of Athens: jurors were paid in fractions of a drachma, and its weight is comparable to a single paperclip or a small grain of rice, about a fortieth of an ounce.

1 obol = 0.0007276666667 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient drachma; Wikipedia: Ancient Greek units of measurement

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