Pounds to Catties (Hong Kong) (lb to catty)

1 pound equals 0.75 catties (Hong Kong) exactly.

1 pound = 0.75 catties (Hong Kong)

How to convert pounds to catties (Hong Kong)

To convert pounds to catties (Hong Kong), multiply the number of pounds by 0.75. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply catties (Hong Kong) by 1.333333333 (rounded).

catties (Hong Kong) = pounds × 0.75

Example: 10 pounds = 7.5 catties (Hong Kong).

About these units

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)

Catty (Hong Kong) (catty)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 1⅓ pounds (about 604.79 g). The legal Hong Kong catty, used in markets.

Kati, the Malay word behind catty, reached English through traders along the South China coast, and the Hong Kong version is the one most travellers meet in wet markets today. In 1884 Hong Kong law tied the catty to British weights as exactly one and one third avoirdupois pounds. With the pound taken as 0.45359265 kg, that gives 604.78982 g, the figure used here, which is a little over 600 g.

The Hong Kong catty is 16 taels and 100 of them make a picul of about 60.48 kg. That makes it heavier than the 500 g jin of mainland China, where the market system was redefined in 1930 and again in 1959 to ten liang per jin. Chinese weights themselves have wandered, from about 250 g in the Pre-Qin period to about 590 g under the Ming and Qing, with 16 liang per jin throughout. Vegetables, meat and herbs in Hong Kong are still often sold by the catty, and shops in Malaysia and Singapore use almost the same value, 604.79 g and 604.8 g respectively.

1 catty (Hong Kong) = 0.6047898267 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Catty; Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Hong Kong units of measurement

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