9 Common Things that Weigh 5 Grams

Things that Weigh 5 Grams

Measuring things by feel is a technical skill that can take years to master. This is especially true when it comes to measuring grams and ounces.

5 grams is the same as 0.17637 ounces or about 0.0110231 pounds.

While knowing the conversion figures of 5 grams can be helpful, they won’t inform you of how much it feels in the palm of your hand. However, knowing the weights of common objects is a great way to get a feel for tiny weight measurements, like 5 grams. So, in this article, I’ll quickly go over 9 items that weigh close to or precisely 5 grams.

2 Pennies

2 pennies

If you really want to get a feel for 5 grams, all you have to do is dig into your wallet or pocket and pull out some coins. According to the US Mint, a single penny weighs exactly 2.5 grams. So, assuming your pennies are still in good condition, 2 of them would equal 5 grams exactly.

Alternatively, you can take a single nickel since it weighs 5 grams to the dot. A quarter is slightly heavier than a nickel, but the 0.560 grams of additional weight is hardly noticeable.

2 Business Cards

2 Business Cards

Similar to name tags and thank you cards, business cards are made of a type of material known as cardstock. Cardstock is thicker and less flexible than regular letter paper, which is what allows them to maintain their sharp corners, even after months of sitting in your wallet.

Business cards typically measure 2 inches wide, which is just shy of 6 centimeters. The weight of a typical business card is 2.5 grams each. So, 2 business cards together would give a collective weight of about 5 grams, depending on the thickness of the material and the size of the card.

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A Sheet of A4 Paper

Sheet A4 paper

If you live in the United States or North America, you’re probably more accustomed to using letter-size paper. Letter paper measures 8.5 × 11 inches and weighs about 5 pounds per ream (500 sheets). So, each sheet would weigh 0.01 pounds, 0.16 ounces, or 4.53 grams, which is pretty close to 5 grams.

However, if you want to get even closer, you’ll need a sheet of A4 paper. A4 paper is 8.3 × 11.7 inches and weighs about 4.69 grams per sheet. However, the ream’s package will tell you how much a sheet weighs in terms of grams per square meter.

5 US Dollar Bills

5 US dollar bills

Earlier, I spoke about how you could use 2 pennies, 1 nickel, or even a quarter to get close to or exactly 5 grams. Alternatively, you can use paper money in the United States. Each US dollar bill is designed to weigh precisely 1 gram. That means 5 of them would add up to 5 grams.

But what dollar bill denomination should you use? In the United States, every denomination—from $1 to $100—has the same dimensions (6.14 × 2.61 × 0.0043 inches) and, thus, weighs the same.

154 Staples

154 Staples

Staples come in a variety of sizes. The measurements of a staple are denoted in terms of width/length. So, a 26/6 staple would have a 26-millimeter crown and have 6-millimeter legs that point down. This just so happens to be the most commonly used staple size.

The exact weight of a staple will depend on its size. When looking at standard 26/6 staples, each of them weighs close to 3.2 milligrams. That means 154 of them together would give you a total weight of around 5 grams.

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Half a Cherry

Half a Cherry

Cherries are pretty interesting fruits. First of all, they contain cyanide, which is a colorless gas that, if ingested in high doses, can be fatal. Luckily, the cyanide in cherries is only found in the pits, and nobody eats those. However, we will need to keep the pits in when weighing the cherry.

On average, a cherry can weigh 11 to 12 grams each (PDF), and that’s with the pit still inside. So, if you eat half of the fruit around the pit, you should have around 5 grams of cherry left over.

AAAA Battery

AAAA battery

Most of us are probably extremely familiar with AA and AAA batteries. They’re the cylindrical batteries that power everyday electronics, such as fire detectors, remote controls, and Bluetooth mouses. One of the lesser-used battery types is the AAAA battery, which is smaller and lighter than AAAs.

An AAAA battery measures about 8.4 millimeters in diameter, 40.2 millimeters long, and weighs between 6 and 10 grams, depending on whether it’s an alkaline battery or a NiCad battery. So, you would need between half and a whole AAAA battery to get close to 5 grams. You can most likely find an AAAA battery in an LED penlight or small headphone amps.

One No. 2 Pencil

One No. 2 Pencil

The no. 2 pencil is the kind of pencil we were all taught to fill in the bubbles of standardized test answer sheets. The lead in these pencils is the perfect shade for computers to gauge which bubbles were and weren’t filled in. Using a different could lead to skewed test results.

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On average, an unsharpened no. 2 pencil weighs between 6 and 7 grams, including the weight of the eraser and the ferrule (the metal part that holds the pencil). While many pencils may look similar and have the same dimensions, their weights can be slightly different by fractions of a gram.

4 Paper Straws

4 Paper Straws

Recently, the entire world has decided that in order to save the turtles, we need to reduce our plastic consumption. One of the first things to go was plastic straws. While a single straw only weighs about 0.4 grams, 500 million straws were used every day prior to the worldwide straw ban.

Today, we use paper straws, which are a little inconvenient but safer for the environment. A single paper straw typically weighs 1.18 grams. 4 of them in a bunch would give you 4.72 grams—just 0.28 grams shy of 5 grams precisely.

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BaronCooke

Baron Cooke has been writing and editing for 7 years. He grew up with an aptitude for geometry, statistics, and dimensions. He has a BA in construction management and also has studied civil infrastructure, engineering, and measurements. He is the head writer of measuringknowhow.com

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