Pounds to Hundredweight (UK) (lb to cwt (UK))

1 pound equals 0.008928571429 hundredweight (UK) (rounded).

1 pound = 0.008928571429 hundredweight (UK)

How to convert pounds to hundredweight (UK)

To convert pounds to hundredweight (UK), multiply the number of pounds by 0.008928571429. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply hundredweight (UK) by 112.

hundredweight (UK) = pounds × 0.008928571429

Example: 10 pounds = 0.08928571429 hundredweight (UK).

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)

Hundredweight (UK) (cwt (UK))

Imperial (British)Traditional unit (still used in some regions)

112 pounds (50.80 kg), eight stone. Twenty of them make a long ton.

Hundredweight, abbreviated cwt, comes from the medieval Latin centum for a hundred, though the English hundred around 1300 varied in size. The Weights and Measures Act 1835 fixed the imperial unit at 112 pounds, which is 8 stone, or about 50.80 kilograms. NIST gives the factor as 50.80235 kilograms and does not mark it as exact.

A rival 100 pound version crossed the Atlantic and was used in the United States and Canada. Britain banned it in 1824 over fraud fears, then legalised it in 1879 as the cental after merchants importing American wheat and tobacco pressed for it. Twenty long hundredweight make a 2,240 pound ton. The unit measured cattle, fodder, fertiliser and coal, and old anvils and church bells carry weights stamped in hundredweight, quarters and pounds. Guernsey and older van and truck ratings still use it.

1 hundredweight (UK) = 50.80234544 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hundredweight; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors

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