A discussion on English Units

As juniors/seniors in engineering, you should be comfortable dealing with ANY system of units.
The main thing all you have in combating confounded units systems is DIMENSIONAL
ANALYSIS – i.e. you should know the dimensions desired for the quantity of interest. If you
keep this point in mind, the conversion factors required will become readily apparent.

The main problem that most of you have lies in dealing with masses/weights in the English
system. Formally, mass in the English system is defined in terms of either the pound-mass (lbm)
or the slug. Some sources refer to the pound-mass as “poundal”. Formally, we define:

lbf
slug =
ft s 2

1 slug = 32.2 lbm

lbf
lbm =
32.2 ft s 2

So the weight of an object at the earth’s surface (W = m g) will be expressed as the same number
of pounds and lbm’s, i.e. if we have place an object on the scale and it reads 100- we are
measuring a force of 100 lbf. To convert this to a mass, we need to divide by the local
acceleration due to gravity. Since the measurement was made on the surface of the Earth (where
g = 32.2 ft/s2), the factors of 32.2 cancel exactly such that the mass of this object is also 100 lbm.
In other words, 1 lbm will be accelerated at a rate of 32.2 ft/s2 by a force of 1 lbf.

The slug differs from the lbm by a factor 32.2; i.e. a slug is 32.2 lbm. If one must think about
mass, I actually prefer this approach, since the definition of slug is “pure” in that it doesn’t
contain any other conversion factors (just like a kg = N/(m/s2)).

Getting back to the lbm, it is obvious that the numerical result is the same – an object weighing
xx lbf will have a mass of xx lbm. For this reason, there need not be any distinction between the
two – hence we have: A pound is a pound. This strategy is practical from the standpoint that we
don’t ever measure mass here on the surface of the earth – WE ALWAYS MEASURE THE
FORCE A GIVEN MASS EXERTS UNDER 1-G ACCELERATION.

Remember,
1 slug = a mss that weighs 32.2 lbf
1 lbm = a mass that weighs 1 lbf
My dog “slug” – weighs 32.2 lbf and has a mass of 32.2 lbm

1
 Table 1: Units and Conversions for Propulsion Classes

Measurement SI System English System Conversion

Length m feet 1 ft = 0.3048 m

lbm (pound-mass)
Mass kg 1 lbm = 0.4535 kg
or slug = 32.2 lbm
Time sec sec /

Temperature 0
K = 0C + 273.15 0
R = 0F + 459.7 1.80 R = 0K

Velocity m/s ft/s 1 ft/s = 0.3048 m/s

lbf (pound-force)
ft
1 lbf = 32.2 lbm
Force N = kg m/s 2
s2 1 lbf = 4.448 N
ft
1 lbf =1 slug
s2
lbf/in2 (psia)
Pressure N/m2 (Pa, Pascal) 1 psia = 6.9 kPa
(note: 1 ft = 12 in)

Energy cal = 4.184 J 1 BTU = 778 ft•lbf 1 cal = 0.003969 BTU

Power watt = J/s 1 HP = 550 ft lbf/s 1 HP = 745.7 w