Foot-pound (energy)

 ( Customary Units Of Measurement In The United States ) 

The foot-pound force (symbol: ft⋅lbf,IEEE Std 260.1™-2004, IEEE Standard Letter Symbols for Units of Measurement (SI Units, Customary Inch-Pound Units, and Certain Other Units) ft⋅lb_f, or ft⋅lb

) is a unit of Mechanical work or energy in the engineering and gravitational systems in United States customary and Imperial units units of measure. It is the energy transferred upon applying a force of one pound-force (lbf) through a linear displacement of one foot. The corresponding SI unit is the joule, though in terms of energy, one joule is not equal to one foot-pound.

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Usage The term foot-pound is also used as a unit of torque (see pound-foot (torque)). In the United States this is often used to specify, for example, the tightness of a fastener (such as and nuts) or the output of an engine. Although they are dimensionally equivalent, energy (a scalar) and torque (a Euclidean vector) are distinct physical quantities. Both energy and torque can be expressed as a product of a force vector with a displacement vector (hence pounds and feet); energy is the dot product of the two, and torque is the cross product.

Although calling the torque unit "pound-foot" has been academically suggested, both are still commonly called "foot-pound" in colloquial usage. To avoid confusion, it is not uncommon for people to specify each as "foot-pound of energy" or "foot-pound of torque" respectively.

In small arms ballistics and particularly in the United States, the foot-pound is often used to specify the muzzle energy of a bullet.

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Conversion factors

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Energy 1 foot pound-force is equivalent to:

• or
• =

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Power 1 foot pound-force per second is equivalent to:

Related conversions:

• 1 watt ≈ ≈
• 1 horsepower (mechanical) = 33,000 ft⋅lbf/min = 550 ft⋅lbf/s

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See also

• Conversion of units
• Pound-foot (torque)
• Poundal
• Slug (unit)
• Units of energy

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