The poundal is the metric-minded cousin hiding in the imperial family: one poundal is the force that accelerates one pound of mass at one foot per second squared. It is the coherent force unit of the foot-pound-second system, the way the newton is for meters and kilograms — and it converts cleanly: 1 poundal = 0.138255 newtons, or about 0.03108 pounds-force. So a 10-poundal push is roughly 1.38 newtons, a gentle nudge by everyday standards.

You will meet poundals mostly in physics textbooks and older engineering references, where problems are posed in absolute imperial units instead of the gravitational pound-force engineers actually use. The distinction matters: pounds-force already bakes in Earth's gravity, while poundals, like newtons, do not — confusing them quietly multiplies or divides your answer by 32.2. This converter speaks all three dialects. Type a value in the Poundals (pdl) box — say 10 — and the Newtons (N) box shows about 1.3826 while the Pounds-force (lbf) box shows about 0.3108. Work backward from either of the other boxes to convert into poundals.

With the pre-filled defaults — Poundals (pdl) 100 — the Poundal Converter returns Newtons (N) 13.8255, Pounds-force (lbf) 3.1081. Change any input and those results update instantly, so you can see exactly how each number you enter moves the answer.