Talk:Ton

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Kilogram´s abbreviation is Kg with capital K, because is a multiplier, and multpliers in the International system are in capitals.

Wrong. -- The Anome 16:48 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)

There's the list of SI prefixes. Euyyn 12:05, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Is the volume ton 252 US or imperial gallons? Jason 17:29, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Gene Nygaard's [1] 2 Accuracy/Overaccuracy 3 Historical Romance Novel Slang 4 Do not merge with 'ton' 5 Units

[edit] Gene Nygaard's [1]

Gene, what's that supposed to link to? The page currently lists some statistics about the fleet, including tonnage. What's that got to do with the imperial ton (of mass) going out? Please explain, as I'm confused.

Urhixidur 17:54, 2005 Apr 28 (UTC)

Those are long tons (1016 kg), same as those used in the United States for the same purpose. They are not metric tons, and those long tons are not just "formerly" used, but "currently" used. Gene Nygaard 18:02, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Current but only in a small area (naval), eg the whole of agriculture and food production works in metric tons. Building works are in metric. GraemeLeggett 08:08, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy/Overaccuracy

Isn't the number of significant figures rather overstated? Might I suggest 2 or three decimal places tops. GraemeLeggett 12:33, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Anybody can round, so it is better to provide exact conversions whenever possible.

Urhixidur 03:14, 2005 May 26 (UTC)

There is no official definition of a short ton force or a long ton force (there is for the metric ton force, a unit no more acceptable for use with SI than the English tons force). That's because there is no official definition of a pound force. We often borrow the acceleration which is official for defining kilograms force to define pounds force, but other accelerations such as 32.16 ft/s² are used for this purpose as well. Gene Nygaard 04:28, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

It seems to me then that the high accuracy numbers should be collected together towards the end in a table, not in the main text GraemeLeggett 08:44, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Historical Romance Novel Slang

I keep reading romance novels where "the Ton" refers to rich people? Nobel people? The closest I can get to an explanation of this slang is the line below from the Ton article.

"In money, a ton is slang for 100 GBP (pounds sterling) —this is a term with a London, England origin."

I have looked other places on the web and was unable to find a discription of the slang. The word may be only used that way in London, England. Can anyone fill in this blank? Maybe I should write to one of the authors (like Connie Brockway).

Opps, I found it! It's defined on http://www.word-detective.com/032404.html#ton under the title "Tons of fun." I'm new to Wikipedia, so now I just need to learn how to add this to the Ton article here. What's the proper way to add a line about this definition without plagiarizing? Or does that matter if you include the link?

That is what I was looking up, too. I moved that meaning into the Misc section.

[edit] Do not merge with 'ton'

Since the 2000 pound ton and the 1000 kg tonne are two completely different units, they should be in different articles. If looking up one returns a link to another, people will believe they are the same and aircraft will crash, missiles will veer off course, and the economy will collapse. Possibly. Marc W. Abel 22:12, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Oppose merge. Well, to start there's 200 pounds difference between the two, and they're in different measurement systems. Merging also does not seem like it would reduce much duplicated information. Won't the article simply bloat up and be filled with tables and numbers that may not relate to the ton/tonne you were looking to learn about? Aside from being units of measurement with similar spellings, what do they have in common? - BalthCat 05:21, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Oppose merge though do not agree with reasoning. The 2000 lb ton and the 2240 lb ton and the 100 ft³ ton and the 9.80665 kN ton and a zillion other tons are also "completely different units", and the 2000 lb ton and 2240 lb ton also do have and should have separate articles. Gene Nygaard 17:21, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Units

It is incorrect to state an exact equivalent from a unit of force to a unit of mass. So you cannot say that a ton is equal exactly to so many kilograms. The number of significant digits is important too, sure anyone can round - but to express something as more accurate than it is surely is a sin against all that is holy.

jptdrake 2006 August 3

If you can say it is exactly so many pounds, you can say it is exactly so many kilograms. Those pounds are, by definition, units of mass exactly equal to 0.45359237 kg. Tons are and always have been primarily units of mass.

There are also recent spinoffs of tons as units of force--something never well defined before the 20th century.

You can also, if you specify how you define your pounds force, say exactly how many newtons a short ton force or a long ton force is equal to. If you borrow the same acceleration to define a pound force as is used to define a kilogram force, exactly 9.80665 m/s², you also have 1 lbf = 0.45359237 kgf and since 1 kgf is exactly 9.80665 N, you can express tons force exactly in terms of newtons. It will vary, of course, if you choose to use a different acceleration to define your pounds force; unlike kilograms force, pounds force do not have an official, universal definition. In that case, the number of kilograms force equal to a short ton force or a long ton force will differ slightly from the number of kilograms equal to the corresponding ton. Gene Nygaard 03:05, 4 August 2006 (UTC)