One dyne equals exactly 0.00001 newton, so to convert any force into dyne you multiply the newton value by 100,000 (or equivalently, move the decimal point five places to the right). For other source units like pound-force, kilogram-force, or kilonewton, the safer route is to convert to newtons first using the published factor, then multiply by 100,000. For example, 1 newton is 100,000 dynes, 1 pound-force is about 444,822.16 dynes, and 1 kilogram-force is about 980,665 dynes. The dyne is the CGS (centimetre-gram-second) unit of force, defined as the force needed to accelerate a 1 gram mass at 1 centimetre per second squared, which is why it is so much smaller than the SI newton. If you want to skip the arithmetic and avoid mixing up mass with force, the free Force Converter handles the full ladder — newtons, kilonewtons, kilogram-force, gram-force, pound-force, ounce-force, dyne, poundal, and kip — with exact conversion factors routed through the newton.
What a Dyne Is and Where the Unit Comes From
The dyne (dyn) is the unit of force in the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system, defined as the force required to accelerate a 1 gram mass at 1 centimetre per second squared. That tidy definition yields 1 dyn = 1 g·cm/s², which in SI units works out to exactly 0.00001 newton. The newton, by contrast, is defined as the force that accelerates a 1 kilogram mass at 1 metre per second squared (1 N = 1 kg·m/s²), so the SI unit is 100,000 times larger than the CGS unit.
The size difference is not accidental. The CGS system was built for small-laboratory physics, where everyday forces were between a fraction of a newton and a few thousand newtons. Dynes made those numbers come out as manageable integers. Once electrical and magnetic units were folded into CGS, dynes also became the natural companion to the gauss and the erg, and entire textbooks were written using them. Modern SI practice has replaced dynes with newtons almost everywhere, but the dyne never fully disappeared: it still turns up in surface-tension measurements (dynes per centimetre), in older physics literature, and in fields like colloid science where CGS units remain convenient.
The Force-to-Dyne Conversion Formula
If you already know the force in newtons, the conversion is the simplest possible: multiply by 100,000. If you are starting from a different unit, the safe approach is to convert that unit to newtons first and then multiply by 100,000, because the force converter in your browser or textbook is built around the newton as the reference. The exact published factors (defined by NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8) are:
- 1 N = 100,000 dyn
- 1 kN = 100,000,000 dyn
- 1 kgf = 980,665 dyn (since 1 kgf = 9.80665 N exactly)
- 1 gf = 980.665 dyn (since 1 gf = 0.00980665 N exactly)
- 1 lbf = 444,822.16 dyn (since 1 lbf = 4.4482216152605 N exactly)
- 1 ozf = 27,801.39 dyn (one sixteenth of lbf)
- 1 pdl = 13,825.50 dyn (since 1 pdl = 0.138254954376 N exactly)
- 1 kip = 444,822,161.53 dyn (since 1 kip = 4,448.2216152605 N exactly)
Each of these factors is the newton value of the source unit multiplied by 100,000, which means every force-to-dyne conversion routes through the newton rather than relying on a hand-tuned lookup table. That is also why a tool that handles the conversion through newtons stays exact to the published definitions instead of drifting with rounding.
How to Convert Force into Dyne Step by Step
The free Force Converter runs the conversion through the newton with the exact factors, so you can enter any force in any source unit and read the dyne result immediately. The interface is designed so you never need to look up a conversion factor by hand.
- Type the amount you want to convert into the force value field.
- Choose the source unit (From) — for example Newton, Pound-force, Kilonewton, or kgf, depending on what your starting number is in.
- Set the target unit (To) to Dyne.
- Read the converted result instantly. If you want to see the full ladder at once, tick 'Show all units at once' to display newtons, kN, kgf, gf, lbf, ozf, poundal, and kip side by side, with the dyne value among them.
Because every conversion is reconciled through the newton, you get the same number for dynes whether you started from newtons, kN, lbf, or kgf — as long as the original force value is the same. The whole calculation happens in your browser, so the value you typed stays on your device.
Worked Example: Converting 5 Newtons into Dyne
Suppose a textbook gives a force as 5 N and you need the value in dyne for a CGS calculation. The conversion is just:
5 N × 100,000 dyn/N = 500,000 dyn
That is the entire calculation. If the same physical force were given in pound-force instead (about 1.124 lbf), the route would be to convert to newtons first, then multiply by 100,000 — which is exactly what the Force Converter does internally for every pair of units on the ladder.
Reference Table: Common Force Units in Dynes
The table below lists the exact dyne equivalents of one unit of each common force measurement. These are not estimates — they are the published definitions multiplied by 100,000, so a value for any other quantity in the same unit scales linearly.
| Force unit | Symbol | Newton value | Dyne value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newton | N | 1 | 100,000 |
| Kilonewton | kN | 1,000 | 100,000,000 |
| Kilogram-force | kgf | 9.80665 | 980,665 |
| Gram-force | gf | 0.00980665 | 980.665 |
| Pound-force | lbf | 4.4482216152605 | 444,822.16 |
| Ounce-force | ozf | 0.27801385 | 27,801.39 |
| Poundal | pdl | 0.138254954376 | 13,825.50 |
| Kip | kip | 4,448.2216152605 | 444,822,161.53 |
Anything that lives in the SI row of that table (newtons and kilonewtons) gives a clean integer in dyne. The rows that depend on gravity (kgf, gf, lbf, ozf) end in a decimal because the standard-gravity factor 9.80665 m/s² is itself a decimal. The poundal row is a decimal because the imperial-foot-to-metre conversion 0.3048 m/ft is exact but oddly shaped.
When Dynes Still Show Up in Real Work
The dyne has been described as obsolete in most engineering, but three places still use it routinely. First, surface tension: by convention, surface tension is reported in dynes per centimetre (or the SI equivalent of millinewtons per metre), and older papers list the CGS unit directly. Second, colloid and soft-matter physics, where the CGS system remains a practical shorthand for forces in the microgram-to-milligram range. Third, historical scientific literature — if you are reading a paper from before 1970, expect dynes, not newtons, on every force value.
The dyne is also handy as a sanity check. Because 1 N is 100,000 dyn, a force in newtons can be inspected in dynes simply by adding five zeroes. That trick lets you quickly estimate whether a calculator answer is on the right order of magnitude before committing to the result.
Other Units the Force Converter Handles
The same Force Converter used for dyne also bridges the rest of the common force units: newtons and kilonewtons (SI), kilogram-force and gram-force (gravimetric metric), pound-force and ounce-force (gravimetric imperial), the poundal (absolute-system imperial), and the kip (US structural-engineering shorthand for 1,000 lbf). Each pair is reconciled through the newton, so a conversion between, say, kip and kgf is exact to the published definitions rather than a rounded lookup. The full ladder is also useful for readers who need to convert force-displacement readings into stress and strain for materials testing — see the dedicated convert force displacement to stress strain guide for that workflow.