Newton Newton List of Northwest Territories premiers Category="SI derived units"Category="Units of force"
This article is about the SI unit of force. For other uses see Newton (disambiguation)
The newton (symbol: N) is the SI unit of force. It is named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on Classical mechanics.

Definition

A newton is the amount of force required to accelerate a Mass of one Kilogram at a rate of one Metre per second squared.
1 N = 1 kg·m·s–2

SI multiples

MultipleNameSymbolMultipleNameSymbol
100newtonN   
101decanewton daN10–1decinewton dN
102hectonewton hN10–2centinewton cN
103kilonewton kN10–3millinewton mN
106meganewton MN10–6micronewton µN
109giganewton GN10–9nanonewton nN
1012teranewton TN10–12piconewton pN
1015petanewton PN10–15femtonewton fN
1018exanewton EN10–18attonewton aN
1021zettanewton ZN10–21zeptonewton zN
1024yottanewtonYN10–24yoctonewtonyN

Explanation

The notions of Mass and Force are often confused in everyday life, but must be kept separate in science and engineering. The newton was first used around 1904, but not until 1948 was it officially adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) as the name for the MKS unit of force. Rather fittingly, given the story about how Newton arrived at his theory of Gravity after contemplating why an apple falls downwards, the mass of a small apple exerts a force of about 1 newton on Earth.

Conversions

<td ≈ 1.0197×10−6 kp>≈ 2.2481×10−6 lbf <td ≈ 2.2046 lbf>≈ 70.932 pdl|- <td ≈ 0.031081 lbf>= 1 lb·ft/s²
Units of force
Newton
(SI unit) 		Dyne Kilopond
(kilogram-force) 		Pound-force Poundal
1 N= 1 kg·m/s²= 105 dyn≈ 0.22481 lbf≈ 7.2330 pdl
1 dyn= 10−5 N= 1 g·cm/s²≈ 7.2330×10−5 pdl
1 kp= 9.80665 N= 980665 dyn= gn·(1 kg)1 lbf≈ 444822 dyn≈ 0.45359 kp= gn·(1 lb)-1 pdl≈ 13825 dyn≈ 0.014098 kp
The values for the pound-force are calculated using the same value for the standard acceleration ofgravity gn which is official for defining the kilopond (a.k.a. kilogram-force), something which is notrequired. Other values such as gn = 32.16 ft/s² are also used.

See also