What Does
Kip Mean?
A kip is a non-SI, non-metric unit of force. It is equal to 1,000 pounds of force and is used to measure engineering loads. Kip is the shorthand term used by architects and engineers, primarily by American engineers.
It can also be used for weights but is not commonly used in this manner. The term kip is useful in trenchless engineering, particularly in pipe ramming technology.
Measuring force is an important aspect of engineering. The International System of Units (SI) was published in 1960. The SI standard measurement for force is the Newton (N). The kip, however, is a non-SI unit of measurement, which is equivalent to 4448.2216 Newton.
The kip is based on the pound, or pound-force, which is part of English Engineering units or the British Gravitational System. One pound-force equals 4.448222 Newton. The symbol for pound-force is lbf or lbf. Kip is also called kip-force and given as kip, klb, or kipf.
Kip may be used any time an engineer wants to measure force. In trenchless construction, this could be any aspect of the design where exacting force specifications are required, such as when testing joints for tensile strength under pressure during installation using trenchless methods.
A kip is also at times referred to as a kilopound.
Trenchlesspedia Explains Kip
Kip is used by architects and engineers to describe deadweight loads.
Kilopounds force or kip or kip force has a dimension of MLT-2, where,
M is Mass
L is Length, and
T is Time.
In relation to the base unit of force, 1 kilopound force (kpf) is equal to 4448.221616 Newtons while 1 Kilopond (kp) is equal to 9.80665 Newtons.
It is important not to confuse between kilopond and kilopound force. The kilopond is also called the kilogram-force (kgf). It is an obsolete gravitational metric unit of force. Kilopond is equal to the force exerted by one kilogram of mass in a standard gravitational field, while kilopound-force is equal to 1000 pounds-force.
The SI Unit Kilogram
The kilogram (kg) is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK), a block of platinum-iridium alloy manufactured in 1889 and stored at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, France. This SI unit is the only one of its kind defined by a physical object rather than its fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in laboratories.
1 kilogram (kg) = 2.20462 Pounds
The kilogram is one of the seven base units of the SI units that define all other measurements.
The Pound
The pound is a measurement of mass used in the imperial system and is considered as a unit of weight i.e. the gravitational force acting on any given object.