Pounds to Scruples (lb to ℈)

1 pound equals 350 scruples exactly.

1 pound = 350 scruples

How to convert pounds to scruples

To convert pounds to scruples, multiply the number of pounds by 350. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply scruples by 0.002857142857 (rounded).

scruples = pounds × 350

Example: 10 pounds = 3,500 scruples.

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)

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

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