Grams and kilograms are different measurements. Grams are used in everyday life when measuring small things like food or laundry detergent. Kilograms, on the other hand, are most often used in scientific applications. Both grams and kilograms are units of weight, but they differ in terms of mass. Have you ever wondered about how to convert grams to kilograms? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Table of Contents
Grams
A gram is the mass/weight equal to 1/1,000 of a kilogram and is roughly equivalent to the mass of one cubic centimeter of water.
The gram, or gramme, is an SI unit of weight in the metric system. Grams can be abbreviated as g; for example, 1 gram can be written as 1 g.
Kilograms
The definition of the kilogram changed in 2019. One kilogram was previously equal to the mass of the platinum-iridium bar, known as the International Prototype of the Kilogram, which was stored in Sèvres, France.
The 2019 SI brochure now defines the kilogram using the Planck constant, and it is defined using the meter and second.[1] It is roughly equal to the mass of 1,000 cubic centimeters of water.
The kilogram, or kilogramme, is the SI base unit for weight and is also a multiple of the gram. In the metric system, “kilo” is the prefix for 103. Kilograms can be abbreviated as kg; for example, 1 kilogram can be written as 1 kg.
Methods of Converting
In the metric system, grams are used to measure light weights and kilograms are used to measure heavier weights. There are 1,000 grams in one kilogram. This means that converting grams to kilograms is easy: just divide the number of grams by 1,000.
Converting With Math
Write the number of grams. Label it “grams” or “g.” If you’re using a calculator, just type the number in.
- In this section, we’ll follow along with an example problem to make things easier. Let’s say that we want to convert 20,000 grams to kilograms. To start, we would write “20,000 grams” on our paper.
Divide by 1,000. A kilogram is one thousand grams. This means that to get kilograms from grams, you just need to divide the number of grams by 1,000.
- In our example, we would get kilograms by dividing 20,000 grams by 1,000.20,000/1,000 = 20
Label your answer. Don’t forget this step! Labeling your answer with the proper units is important. If you’re doing this conversion for schoolwork, you can lose points if you don’t label. If you’re doing it for something else, people may assume the wrong units.
- In our case, we would label our answer with the label “kilograms” like this:20 kilograms.
To get back to grams, multiply by 1,000. As discussed above, a kilogram is one thousand grams. This means that if you ever want to get back to grams from kilograms, all you need to do is multiply the number of kilograms by 1,000. Since multiplications is basically the “opposite” operation as division, this will “undo” the division and give you grams.
- To get 20 kilograms back to grams, we just multiply by 1,000 (don’t forget to label your answer again):
- 20 kilograms × 1,000 = 20,000 grams
Converting by Shifting the Decimal Point
Start with your number of grams. Believe it or not, you can convert between grams and kilograms without doing any math. This works because the metric system is a base 10 system of measurements. In other words, metric units are always a multiple of 10 apart from each other — there are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, 100 centimeters in a meter, 1,000 meters in a kilometer, and so on.
- In this section, let’s convert 37 grams to kilograms. We would begin the same way as in the section above, writing “37 grams” on our paper.
Shift the decimal point three spaces to the left. Now, find the decimal point in your number of grams. If you’re converting a whole number, this won’t usually be written, but you can assume it its to the right of the ones place. Move the decimal point three spaces to the left. Each time you move past a number counts as one space. If you run out of numbers to move past, keep moving it, leaving blank spaces.[5]
- In our example, the decimal point in 37 grams is to the right of the 7 (i.e., 37 grams is the same as 37.0 grams). If we go one space at a time, moving the decimal point three spaces to the left looks like this:
- 37.
- 3.7
- .37
- ._37 — note that we leave an empty space when we run out of numbers.
Add zeroes in any empty spaces. You can’t leave empty spaces in your answer, so fill in each one with a zero. You can also put a zero to the left of the decimal place if there aren’t any numbers there, but this is optional — it just depends how you like to write your answers.
- In our example, we have one empty space between the decimal point and the 3, so we’ll fill it in with a zero like this:.037
- Adding the proper label (plus an extra zero to the left of the decimal point for presentation purposes), we get our final answer:
- 0.037 kilograms
To get back to grams, shift the decimal place back. When you have kilograms, shifting the decimal place three spaces to the right will give you grams again. Fill in any empty spaces with zeroes as normal.
- In our example, we can shift the decimal place three spaces to the right like this:0.03700.37003.70037. — the zeroes on the left don’t matter any more, so we can rewrite this as simply 37 grams.
Kilogram to Gram Conversion Table
| Kilograms | Grams |
|---|---|
| 0.001 kg | 1 g |
| 0.002 kg | 2 g |
| 0.003 kg | 3 g |
| 0.004 kg | 4 g |
| 0.005 kg | 5 g |
| 0.006 kg | 6 g |
| 0.007 kg | 7 g |
| 0.008 kg | 8 g |
| 0.009 kg | 9 g |
| 0.01 kg | 10 g |
| 0.02 kg | 20 g |
| 0.03 kg | 30 g |
| 0.04 kg | 40 g |
| 0.05 kg | 50 g |
| 0.06 kg | 60 g |
| 0.07 kg | 70 g |
| 0.08 kg | 80 g |
| 0.09 kg | 90 g |
| 0.1 kg | 100 g |
| 0.2 kg | 200 g |
| 0.3 kg | 300 g |
| 0.4 kg | 400 g |
| 0.5 kg | 500 g |
| 0.6 kg | 600 g |
| 0.7 kg | 700 g |
| 0.8 kg | 800 g |
| 0.9 kg | 900 g |
| 1 kg | 1,000 g |
Conclusion
When converting one unit of measurement into another, it is necessary to know the basic unit into which you are converting. This is because it helps you in understanding what exactly into which you are converting.