# Kilogram-force per square centimetre

pressure gauge from unknown source produced by ISGUS GmbH.
pressure gauge from unknown source note the "square" instead of 2. (Olja means Oil in Swedish)

A kilogram-force per square centimetre (kgf/cm2), often just kilogram per square centimetre (kg/cm2), or kilopond per square centimetre is a unit of pressure using metric units. Its use is now deprecated; it is not a part of the International System of Units (SI), the modern metric system.

Still, kg/cm2 remains active as a measurement of force primarily due to older torque measurement devices still in use. An interesting example of this use can be considered in the use calculation of Body Mass Index (BMI):[1]

{\displaystyle {\begin{alignedat}{2}BMI&={weight \over height^{2}}{(kg) \over (m^{2})}&={weight \over height^{2}}{(kg) \over (cm^{2})}*10000\end{alignedat}}}

This use of the unit of pressure provides an intuitive understanding for how a body's mass can apply force to a scale's surface area i.e.kilogram-force per square (centi-)metre.

In SI units, the unit is converted to the SI derived unit pascal (Pa), which is defined as one newton per square metre (N/m2). A newton is equal to a kg·m/s2, and a kilogram-force is 9.80665 newtons,[2] meaning that 1 kgf/cm2 equals 98.0665 kilopascals.

In some older publications, kilogram-force per square centimetre is abbreviated ksc instead of kg/cm2.