Disscussing old, rare, very specific or otherwise uncommon units and measurements
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Thu May 12, 2005 5:45 am
I need to convert .542kg to newtons, and im from the united states and i dont understand the metric system at all, and im totaly lost please help
Thu May 12, 2005 5:58 am
It isn't really a conversion, although your school may be incorrectly teaching you that is is. Earth's gravity exerts a force on any mass. If that is the only force, the mass will fall towards the center of the earth. To keep it from falling, you have to exert an equal but opposite force to make it stay put.
On a 1 kg mass, that force is determined from the free-fall acceleration of 9.80665 m/s^2 and Newton's 2nd law, f = ma.
The force is 9.80665 N on a 1 kg mass in standardgravity. In reality, gravity varies about 0.5% on the surface on the earth and would be totally different on the moon.
There are tables for earth's gravity as a function of latitude and height above sea level, but most people use "standard gravity" and it is "close enough."
f = ma = 0.542 kg x 9.80665 m/s/^2 = 5.32 N
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