Pounds to Tola (lb to tola)

1 pound equals 38.88888889 tola (rounded).

1 pound = 38.88888889 tola

How to convert pounds to tola

To convert pounds to tola, multiply the number of pounds by 38.88888889. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply tola by 0.02571428571 (rounded).

tola = pounds × 38.88888889

Example: 10 pounds = 388.8888889 tola.

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)

Tola (tola)

Indian subcontinentTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

180 grains, about 11.6638 g. The traditional South Asian unit for gold and silver, still the basis of gold prices in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Tola comes from a Sanskrit word for weighing, and the unit was traditionally the weight of 100 ratti seeds, the red-and-black seeds of the rosary pea used by Indian goldsmiths. Its weight differed from place to place. Akbar's coins were close to a tola, and Sher Shah Suri's rupee was about one percent lighter than the later British tola.

In 1833 Regulation VII of the British government in India fixed it at 180 troy grains, or about 11.6638 g, exactly three eighths of a troy ounce. The earlier Bengal sicca standard, one Murshidabad rupee, was about 179.67 grains, so this was more tidying up than change. A tola divided into 12 masha of 8 ratti each, and 80 tolas made a seer. Zanzibar's tola was lighter, around 11.34 g. India officially dropped it in 1956, yet gold is still sold by the tola, notably as 10-tola bars, across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Gulf.

1 tola = 0.0116638038 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tola (unit); Wikipedia: Seer (unit)

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