Convert Pound (lb) to Kilopound (kip) instantly.
About these units
Pound (lb)
The pound is a traditional unit of mass widely used in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom. Defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms, the pound evolved from medieval English systems that themselves descended from Roman and Carolingian traditions. The pound is central to commerce, engineering, food measurement, and body weight scales in the US. Its widespread cultural presence makes it deeply familiar even in contexts where metric units dominate. Because the pound is part of a non-decimal system, subdivisions such as ounces (1/16 pound) introduce complexity, yet this structure persists due to tradition and embedded industrial standards. In engineering, the pound often appears alongside pound-force, making careful distinction between mass and force essential.
Kilopound (kip)
A kilopound, or kip, equals 1,000 pounds and is used primarily in structural engineering, especially in the United States. Loads, tensions, and compression forces in steel beams, concrete structures, and bridges are often expressed in kips. The kip allows engineers to avoid large numbers when expressing forces such as building loads or material stresses. In structural analysis software and construction documents, kips are ubiquitous. Despite not being a mass unit strictly speaking (it is often used as a force unit, kip-force), it remains central to American engineering practice.