[OP]
Contributor
A kilopascal is a measurement of pressure, similar to psi. It's a commonly used metric term, but for the mechanically minded it is not clear, like grams per square centimeter would be. Atmospheres (bar) is useful also. For a rocket scientist, kilopascal is more convenient when working in places other than the surface of the earth or to high precision. For me a useful number is that a psi equals about 7 kilopascals. I like the metric system, just not this particular convention.
Contributor
One Newton per square metre is easy to remember, however it’s a small unit hence the Kilopascal.
It’s sort of like when someone asks how much something weighs and then gives a figure in Kg….Should be in Newton’s.
Regards, Rod
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Any relation to Fig?Originally Posted by Rod Sheridan
That's the only Newton most Yanks are going to be familiar with. I get along reasonably well with many metric measures but Newton just doesn't compute for me. Aircraft engine output is often expressed as pounds of thrust or KiloNewtons. There are of course online converters but that's one unit of measure I have trouble getting my head around.
Member
I find Newtons to be less confusing than poundals, slugs, poundmass and poundforce.Any relation to Fig?
Beranek's Law:
It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.
Contributor
Exactly, I’m always lost with the imperial system.
[OP]
Contributor
Hi Rod
The only place poundals, slugs, pound force and pound mass are to be found is in textbooks. They are arcane. PSI is found and understood everywhere in north america. Newtons, not so much.
Member
To me psf is more intuitive than psi.
Beranek's Law:
It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.
Contributor
Whats the question? Did the first post get deleted?
A kilopascal is 1000 regular pascals.
Bill D
Last edited by Bill Dufour; 10-16-2021 at 7:31 PM.
Contributor
Careful 1 bar is not 1 atmosphere. It's close but not the same
1 atm = 760 mm Hg = 760 Torr = 101.325 kPa = 1.013 bar
1 bar = 100000 Pa = 100 kPa = 0.987 atm
Pa = N/m2 which means a kPa = 1000 N/m2 a square meter is a pretty big area, is we convert to cm2 this means a kPa = 0.1 N/cm2 if you want to extend that its about equivalent of the force exerted by gravity on 10 grams of matter in a square centimeter. Which means 1 atm which is 101.325 kPa is about equivalent to the force of gravity on 1 kg spread over 1 cm2
John (who is teaching the senior level Thermodynamics course this semester)
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Canada went metric, sort of, in the 80's. I went thru school using mainly the imperial system and still feel more comfortable with it. I remember when the metric system was introduced at work in an engineering office of a boiler manufacturer but the vast majority of the projects I did in the boiler and power generation industry were still imperial. Today, the only metric measurement I feel more comfortable with is the kilometer for driving distance. A kilometer is roughly ten football fields excluding the end zone so it's easy to picture. I can't picture how many football fields in a mile. Just looked it up, it's around 17 1/2 football fields, ten is easier to remember.
Kilopascal? No feel for it.
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Which football field do you use? American, Canadian or Association (soccer)?
"Don't worry. They couldn't possibly hit us from that dist...."
Contributor
There all about 100 meters long, Canadian football 101 meters (goal line to goal line), US football field 91.44 meters and Association soccer field 105 meters.Which football field do you use? American, Canadian or Association (soccer)?
Contributor
The American military went metric long ago. I remember, back in the 60's, studying land navigation and all the maps were in meters. And we were taught to talk in meters and kilometers. The slang for a kilometer was "klick" (or "click"), as in "It's six klicks from here".
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
I can remember in HS school in the 60's when the physic teacher told us we'd be going metric shortly. US medical field did go metric. Working on diagnostic imaging equipment, I carried imperial and metric tools as some of the older equipment still was imperial and the newer equipment required metric tools.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....
Contributor
It's funny how some things when metric, like large bottles of soda (a liter) or liquor (750 mL), but other things have not. Cars certainly have gone metric.
But miles and Fahrenheit are still with use rather than kilometers and Centigrade. And inches rather than centimeters.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
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