Liang (Chinese) to Pounds (liang to lb)
1 liang (Chinese) equals 0.1102311311 pounds (rounded).
How to convert liang (Chinese) to pounds
To convert liang (Chinese) to pounds, multiply the number of liang (Chinese) by 0.1102311311. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply pounds by 9.0718474.
pounds = liang (Chinese) × 0.1102311311
Example: 10 liang (Chinese) = 1.102311311 pounds.
About these units
Liang (Chinese) (liang)
Exactly 50 g in the modern Chinese market system, called the tael in English; one tenth of the modern jin (it was a sixteenth of the old jin).
English speakers know this unit as the tael, a word that came through Portuguese from the Malay tahil, meaning weight. In China the liang measured gold, silver and medicines, and it doubled as a unit of money when a liang of silver served as a unit of account. Foreign trade at Canton and Hong Kong carried the term around the world, and the name is still used for bullion weights.
For most of Chinese history the liang was one sixteenth of a jin, which is why people still speak of half a jin being eight liang in older sources. The Republic kept that ratio from 1930 with a liang of 31.25 g, but the People's Republic changed it in 1959 to one tenth of a jin. The figure used here is that mainland value of 50 g. Hong Kong's tael is about 37.8 g, while Taiwan uses 37.5 g.
1 liang (Chinese) = 0.05 kilograms (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Tael; Wikipedia: Jin (unit); Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement
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 liang (Chinese) (reverse)
- Liang (Chinese) to kilograms
- Liang (Chinese) to grams
- Liang (Chinese) to metric tons
- Liang (Chinese) 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.