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What is a Metric Ton?

By Brendan McGuigan
Updated: May 21, 2024
Views: 328,510
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A metric ton is a unit of measurement based on the metric system, rather than the standard, or imperial, system more commonly used in the United States. It is known as a tonne in most other countries, and is equivalent to 1,000 kilograms. Strictly speaking, it is a megagram, being one million grams.

Usage

In countries that employ the metric system, tonne is the correct term for this unit of measure, although it is often referred to as a ton. In the United States, however, “ton” usually means another, non-metric, unit known as the “short ton” — equivalent to 2,000 pounds — or, less commonly, a “long ton” — 2,240 pounds — which is the same as the imperial ton formerly used in the UK. In the USA, this measure is still used in the freight industry and for navy ships. Due to the similarity in pronunciation — and, in some cases, spelling — there can often be confusion between short, long and metric tons. The terms “long” and “short” come from units used in the UK before conversion to the metric system and are largely obsolete outside the USA.

Conversions

Due to the differing systems and terminology used by the USA and other countries, and within the USA for different applications, it is useful to be able to convert one unit to another. The main conversions, and synonyms, are summarized below:

Equivalent Terms and Conversions
USA UK Kilograms Pounds
Metric Ton Tonne 1,000 2,205
Ton Short Ton 907 2,000
Long Ton Imperial Ton 1,016 2,240

Measurement Systems and SI Units

The measurement system employed in the USA, known as United States customary units, is very similar to the imperial system employed in the UK prior to the adoption of metric units. There are, however, some differences: these arise from the fact that the system is based on UK units that were in use before the imperial system was standardized. The short ton was adopted in the USA prior to UK imperial standardization, after which the imperial unit became the slightly heavier long ton. The tonne was sometimes called a tonneau or millier — both French terms — but these are no longer used.

It has been recommended that the USA should switch fully to the metric system. This, however, has met with considerable resistance from commerce and consumers. As a result, metric measurements are normal only for scientific, medical and military purposes, and the short ton is still the standard for common use.

The official symbol for the metric ton in the International System of Units (SI) is simply “t.” Although the unit itself is not an SI unit, it is accepted for use with the SI system. All of the standard prefixes can be used with it, but in practice the most common ones are kilotonne and megatonne.

Measuring Energy and Force

The units kilotonne and megatonne may be used for measuring energy release. In this context, energy is related to the amount released by detonation of the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene (TNT), an explosive used in bombs during World War II. These units are most commonly used to measure the explosive power of nuclear weapons. A metric ton of TNT releases roughly 4.19 x 109 joules of energy, with a kilotonne releasing 4.19 x 1012, and a megatonne releasing 4.19 x 1015. To put this in some context, the Hiroshima bomb was equal to about twenty kilotonnes of TNT, while a modern nuclear missile could fall closer to twenty megatonnes.

The metric ton is sometimes used as a unit of force. Strictly speaking, it should be called the tonne-force, but is often simply called the tonne, or, in the USA, metric ton. For example, it might be stated that a bulldozer can exert a force of ten metric tons. The SI unit for force, however, is the newton, and the tonne or tonne-force is not accepted as part of the SI system.

Origin

The word most likely comes from the Latin term tunna, which is the word for a cask. Since a large cask filled, for example, with wine, would weigh roughly a metric ton, this origin is commonly accepted. The word has been in use for quite some time, although previously the spelling was more often tunne.

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Discussion Comments
By anon993996 — On Jan 05, 2016

Asian elephant: 2,700 kg.

African forest elephant: 2,700 kg.

African bush elephant: 5,500 kg.

A big Bull elephant: 6,000 kg.

By anon310521 — On Dec 24, 2012

How many imperial tons are in one metric ton?

By anon282199 — On Jul 27, 2012

I don't know that more than half the posters read the post. Some are even putting up comments that are just flat wrong.

anon256938 wrote in Post 15: "A metric ton is equal to 2240 US pounds, which can also equate to a long ton, sometimes spelled as long tonne. Both long tonne and/or long ton are uncommonly referred to as a megagram ton.

This is wrong.

1) A metric ton is closer to 2204.62 U.S. pounds.

2) The long ton *is* 2240 U.S. pounds but is never spelled "tonne."

3) A long ton cannot be called a "megagram ton." Nor is the term "megagram" in common usage.

By anon256938 — On Mar 24, 2012

A metric ton is equal to 2240 US pounds, which can also equate to a long ton, sometimes spelled as long tonne. Both long tonne and/or long ton are uncommonly referred to as a megagram ton.

By HOUNDpuppy — On Aug 16, 2011

Excellent summary of the subject. Over the years I've looked up "short ton", "long ton", "metric tonne" but I've never found such a comprehensive source that offered definitions as well as common industry uses of same until now. My compliments.

By anon92930 — On Jul 01, 2010

How many cubic meters are there in 30,000 metric tons?

By anon91416 — On Jun 21, 2010

how many tons is dry metric ton unit (dmtu)?

By anon88393 — On Jun 04, 2010

about 2.2 pounds is a kilogram, so times 1000 you get 2200 pounds in a metric ton.

By anon83929 — On May 13, 2010

how many tons in one metric ton?

By anon82488 — On May 06, 2010

what is 1 htons = cbm ?

By anon80059 — On Apr 26, 2010

how many tons in a metric ton?

By anon62717 — On Jan 28, 2010

Since the metric ton is in a metric weight system, grams can easily be calculated:

1 t = 1000 kg (=10^3 kg) = 1000000 g (10^6 g).

So 100,000 t = 10^5 t = 10^5*10^6 g = 10^11 g = 100,000,000,000 g

By anon38265 — On Jul 25, 2009

how many grams are in a 100,000 metric tons?

By anon9677 — On Mar 10, 2008

how many pounds in a metric ton?

By frankjoseph — On Mar 10, 2008

A metric ton is 10 percent larger than a US standard ton.

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