Kip (unit) - Definition and Overview

In the United States, a kip is sometimes a unit of mass that equals 1,000 avoirdupois pounds (used to compute shipping charges), or more often a unit of force that equals 1,000 pounds force (used to measure engineering loads). Its symbol is kip. The name comes from combining the words "kilo" and "pound", thus 1,000 pounds; it is called a kilopound, sometimes using the same symbol kip or sometimes klb. Note that the symbol "kp" usually stands for a different unit of force, the kilopond or kilogram-force.

The kip is mainly used by architects and structural engineers. As a unit of force it is sometimes called the kip-force (symbol kipf or klbf) to distinguish it from the unit of mass.

The kip is also the name of obsolete units of measure in historic England and Malaysia, and of the currency of Laos.

See also

• Conversion of units#Force
• Conversion of units#Mass

External Links:

• Kip in the context of physics in the British engineering system (http://hypertextbook.com/physics/foundations/system-english/)
• Common conversion factors for kip (http://www.buildingcatalogue.com.au/infotables/conversionfactors.html)
• Kip in other countries (http://www.sizes.com/units/kip.htm)
• NIST Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), Appendix B: Conversion Factors (http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/appenB8.html) This only lists kip as a unit of force, not as a unit of mass. Contrast that with the use of "pound" and "pound-force" in this table, where the distinction is clearly maintained in both their names and their symbols.