Ounces to Scruples (oz to ℈)

1 ounce equals 21.875 scruples exactly.

1 ounce = 21.875 scruples

How to convert ounces to scruples

To convert ounces to scruples, multiply the number of ounces by 21.875. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply scruples by 0.04571428571 (rounded).

scruples = ounces × 21.875

Example: 10 ounces = 218.75 scruples.

About these units

Ounce (oz)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

One sixteenth of a pound, exactly 28.349523125 g. Used for food, mail and consumer goods in the US and UK.

A twelfth part is what ounce originally meant. It comes from the Roman uncia, one twelfth of the Roman pound, a word that also gave English the inch. The abbreviation oz does not come from English at all but from the Italian onza or oncia. Over the centuries many regions and trades used different ounces: the English Tower ounce of 29.16 g was abolished by Henry VIII in 1527, and the Dutch ons was redefined as exactly 100 g in 1820.

The avoirdupois ounce used for everyday goods is one sixteenth of a pound, exactly 28.349523125 g or 437.5 grains, the standard in the US and under the UK imperial system. It is not the same as the troy ounce for precious metals, and neither is the fluid ounce, which measures volume. Ounces still describe portions such as steaks and burgers, and they show up in unexpected places: fabric is graded by weight per area, so a 16 oz denim is a heavy cloth, and the copper on a circuit board is specified in ounces, where 1 oz is roughly 34.7 micrometres thick.

1 ounce = 0.02834952313 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ounce; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (mass conversions)

Scruple (℈)

Troy & apothecaries'Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

20 grains (1.296 g). A unit of the old apothecaries' system of weights.

Physicians and pharmacists once wrote prescriptions in Latin, and the scruple appeared in them as a small symbol followed by a Roman numeral. At 20 grains, it was the smallest of the larger apothecaries' units and amounts to roughly 1.296 grams. Three scruples made a dram, and the grain beneath it is about 64.8 milligrams.

Pharmacists in Britain were pushed away from the old scheme in the nineteenth century. The Medical Act 1858 required avoirdupois weights, and the 1864 British Pharmacopoeia advised dropping the scruple and the dram, yet the troy-based apothecaries' system lingered in practice. It became obsolete for drugs when metric measures became mandatory in 1971, and the Weights and Measures Act 1976 abolished it.

Today the unit survives mainly as a historical curiosity in old recipes and medical texts. A modern pharmacist would give the same dose as about 1.3 grams.

1 scruple = 0.0012959782 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Apothecaries' system; Wikipedia: Troy weight

Related conversions

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