Monme to Pounds (mon to lb)

1 monme equals 0.008267334832 pounds (rounded).

1 monme = 0.008267334832 pounds

How to convert monme to pounds

To convert monme to pounds, multiply the number of monme by 0.008267334832. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply pounds by 120.9579653 (rounded).

pounds = monme × 0.008267334832

Example: 10 monme = 0.08267334832 pounds.

About these units

Monme (mon)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 3.75 g. A Japanese unit still used for pearls (where it is called momme) and for the weight of silk.

Monme takes its name from the weight of a single mon, the small copper coin of old Japan, so the word amounts to "mon weight". Edo-period merchants weighed silver in monme rather than counting it, and prices were quoted in silver monme until that system was abolished in 1868.

The Weights and Measures Act of 1891 fixed the monme at one thousandth of a kan, which is exactly 3.75 g, the figure used here. A modern Japanese 5 yen coin is often cited as weighing about one monme. Today the unit survives mainly in the pearl trade, where the spelling momme is common internationally and loose pearls and strands are weighed in it.

Silk is different: the textile momme is a separate convention of pounds per piece of cloth 45 inches wide and 100 yards long, so it should not be converted as a mass.

1 monme = 0.00375 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Monme; Wikipedia: Pearl; Wikipedia: Units of textile measurement

Pound (lb)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

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)

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