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Dyne

Unit of force in the CGS system

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The dyne (symbol: dyn; from Ancient Greek δύναμις (dúnamis) 'power, force') is a derived unit of force specified in the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units, a predecessor of the modern SI.

01History

The name dyne was first proposed as a CGS unit of force in 1873 by a Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and is from Ancient Greek δύναμις ('force', 'power').

02Definition

The dyne is defined as "the force required to accelerate a mass of one gram at a rate of one centimetre per second squared". An equivalent definition of the dyne is "that force which, acting for one second, will produce a change of velocity of one centimetre per second in a mass of one gram".

One dyne is equal to 10 micronewtons, 10−5 N or to 10 nsn (nanosthenes) in the old metre-tonne-second system of units.

  • 1 dyn = 1 g⋅cm/s2 = 10−5 kg⋅m/s2 = 10−5 N
  • 1 N = 1 kg⋅m/s2 = 105 g⋅cm/s2 = 105 dyn
Force units
Newtons Dynes Kilograms-force
kiloponds
Pounds Poundals
1 N  1 kgms2 = 100000 dyn  0.10197 kgf  0.22481 lb  7.23301 pdl
1 dyn = 1×10−5 N  1 gcms2  1.01972×10−6 kgf  2.24809×10−6 lb  7.23301×10−5 pdl
1 kgf = 9.80665 N = 980665 dyn  gn × 1 kg  2.20462 lb  70.9316 pdl
1 lb  4.44822 N  444822 dyn  0.45359 kgf  gn × 1 lbm / .3048 mft  32.1740 pdl
1 pdl  0.13825 N  13825.5 dyn  0.01410 kgf  0.03108 lbf  1 lbmfts2

03Use

The dyne per centimetre is a unit traditionally used to measure surface tension. For example, the surface tension of distilled water is 71.99 dyn/cm at 25 °C (77 °F). (In SI units this is 71.99×10−3 N/m or 71.99 mN/m.)

Watch videos about DyneExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Dyne, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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