With all the analysis on the current dip, it transpires that the US ton is 907 kg, the imperial ton is 1,016 kg, and the metric tonne, often spelled ton, is 1,000 kg. As our information sources are global, does anyone know what the convention is? It may be a mute point, but still a 10% difference.
Could be wrong but I see it as Imperial is old school and not used much now, Metric ton used by most smart people of the world Us ton used only by the US as they have to be different, should be called the clay tons ton, it's the ton when you don't have a ton..
All good, but what's the answer to my question? Do I stop stacking at a US ton of gold or do I go on to the tonne or stay greedy and go the imperial ton?
907 kg is a "short ton" and 1,016 kg is a "long ton". 1,000 kg is a tonne and the spelling indicates it is French and therefore metric. The convention is to use the correct spelling of the unit measurements, but you're probably better off asking an American "how many kilograms is that?" (or "how many pounds is that?" and doing the conversion yourself) because Americans don't know how to spell things properly.
The US short ton is 907.185 kg. However, their long ton is 1016.5 kg (which is of course, the imperial ton). To be honest (sorry ) it is my belief, with sloppy standards of journalism rife and sloppy communication skills throughout the community, that only by accessing the source documents will you find the truth. The lazy journos who take press releases, knock most of the information out of them, take out all the "big" words (anything over two syllables) and then add their name at the top get those press releases from somewhere. However, I suspect that even with the press release in hand, you will find tonne abbreviated to ton and the terms undefined, simply because all media people use computers with auto spell and grammar checks and cannot think for themselves. They also know what they mean and don't think that others don't. If only people were educated about the SI system and used kg for one thousand grams and Mg for one million grams, all would be well. At least we'd be speaking the same language. As usual the USA finds itself in excellent company, since it is one of only three countries in the world that has not officially adopted the international system. The other two, BTW, are Burma and Liberia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units). Doesn't make much difference anyway, people still talk of 1000 km instead of one Mm and 2000 kL rather than 2ML, so confusion will continue to reign supreme. BTW, 500 long tons is 508.0235 Mg - just to show off After all this carry on, my advice is the same I got during my training in science - go to the source and rarely trust secondary sources.
