Pounds to Taels (Hong Kong) (lb to tael)

1 pound equals 12 taels (Hong Kong) exactly.

1 pound = 12 taels (Hong Kong)

How to convert pounds to taels (Hong Kong)

To convert pounds to taels (Hong Kong), multiply the number of pounds by 12. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply taels (Hong Kong) by 0.08333333333 (rounded).

taels (Hong Kong) = pounds × 12

Example: 10 pounds = 120 taels (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)

Tael (Hong Kong) (tael)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One sixteenth of a Hong Kong catty, exactly 1⅓ ounces (about 37.80 g). Still used for gold and Chinese medicine.

Jewellers' windows in Hong Kong quote gold in a word that came from the Malay tahil, meaning simply weight, and passed through Portuguese into English as tael. The Chinese name is liang, and the unit has been the small change of Chinese weighing for centuries, used for gold, silver and Chinese medicines. The Hong Kong trade tael is a sixteenth of the catty, which makes it one and one third avoirdupois ounces, or 37.799364 g.

Gold and other precious metals are traded on a separate Hong Kong troy tael of 37.429 g, so a gold shop and a herbalist may use slightly different taels. Elsewhere the value differs again. Taiwan, Korea and Thailand use 37.5 g, Vietnam about 37.8 g, and mainland China since 1959 uses 50 g, a tenth of its market jin.

1 tael (Hong Kong) = 0.03779936417 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tael; Wikipedia: Catty; Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement

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