Convert Pound (lb) to Slug (slug) 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.
Slug (slug)
The slug is a unit of mass in the English engineering system, defined such that a slug accelerated at 1 ft/s² experiences a force of 1 pound-force. Numerically, a slug is about 14.5939 kilograms. The slug resolves confusion between mass and force in imperial units by clearly separating pounds-force (lbf) from pounds-mass (lb). In dynamics problems involving Newton's laws, slugs provide a consistent mass measurement within the imperial framework. Although uncommon outside engineering physics education, the slug plays an important conceptual role in bridging imperial and SI thinking.