Tonne
Encyclopedia
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US
(SI
unit symbol: t, U.S. abbreviation: "mt"), often put pleonastically
as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton
, is a metric system
unit of mass
equal to 1000 kilogram
s. The tonne is not an International System of Units
(SI) unit, but is accepted for use with the SI. In SI units and prefix
es, the tonne is a megagram (Mg).
unit symbol for the tonne is "t". "T", "mT" and "mt" (especially in the combination "mmt" for "million metric tons") are also used, and "Te" (particularly in the offshore and nuclear industries) is sometimes used. These alternative abbreviations or symbols are similar to SI terms: "T" is the SI unit symbol for the tesla
, "Mt" for megatonne and "m" is used as an SI prefix for "milli" - the 0.001 multiplier.
of 2240 pounds (1,016 kg) and this is so close to the tonne that some people draw little distinction and continue to use the old spelling. For example, even the Guinness Book of World Records accepts metrication
without marking this by changing the spelling. For the United States, metric ton is the name for this unit used and recommended by NIST. In the US an unqualified mention of a ton almost invariably refers to a short ton
of 2000 pounds (907.2 kg).
Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic
word in general use in the North Sea
area since the Middle Ages
(cf. Old English and Old Frisian
tunne, Old High German
and Medieval Latin
tunna, German
and French
tonne) to designate a large cask, or tun. A full tun, standing about a metre high, could easily weigh a tonne. The old English wine cask volume measurement known as a tun
is close to a metric tonne in weight as it defines about 954 litres which for many commonly used liquids (aqueous solutions) approximates to as many kilograms.
The spelling tonne pre-dates the introduction of the SI in 1960; it has been used with this meaning in France since 1842, when there were no metric prefixes for multiples of 106 and above, and is now used as the standard spelling for the metric mass measurement in most English
-speaking countries. In the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French
words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial
and US customary
units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass. Pronunciation of tonne (the word used in the United Kingdom) and ton is usually identical.
In the case of uranium
, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, meaning 1,000 kg.
, based on a specific combustion energy of TNT of about 4.2 MJ/kg
(or one thermochemical calorie
per milligram). Hence, 1 kt TNT = 4.2 TJ, 1 Mt TNT = 4.2 PJ.
The SI unit of energy is the joule
. Assuming that a TNT explosion releases 1,000 small (thermochemical) calorie
s per gram (4.2 kJ
/g), one tonne of TNT is equivalent to 4.2 gigajoules
.
and the kilogram, the tonne gave rise to a (now obsolete) force unit of the same name, the tonne-force, equivalent to about 9.8 kilonewtons: a unit also often called simply "tonne" or "metric ton" without identifying it as a unit of force. In contrast to the tonne as a mass unit, the tonne-force or metric ton-force is not acceptable for use with SI, partly because it is not an exact multiple of the SI unit of force, the newton.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(SI
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
unit symbol: t, U.S. abbreviation: "mt"), often put pleonastically
Pleonasm
Pleonasm is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: examples are black darkness, or burning fire...
as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
, is a metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
unit of mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
equal to 1000 kilogram
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
s. The tonne is not an International System of Units
International System of Units
The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
(SI) unit, but is accepted for use with the SI. In SI units and prefix
SI prefix
The International System of Units specifies a set of unit prefixes known as SI prefixes or metric prefixes. An SI prefix is a name that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a decadic multiple or fraction of the unit. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol...
es, the tonne is a megagram (Mg).
Unit Symbol
The SISi
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
unit symbol for the tonne is "t". "T", "mT" and "mt" (especially in the combination "mmt" for "million metric tons") are also used, and "Te" (particularly in the offshore and nuclear industries) is sometimes used. These alternative abbreviations or symbols are similar to SI terms: "T" is the SI unit symbol for the tesla
Tesla (unit)
The tesla is the SI derived unit of magnetic field B . One tesla is equal to one weber per square meter, and it was defined in 1960 in honour of the inventor, physicist, and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla...
, "Mt" for megatonne and "m" is used as an SI prefix for "milli" - the 0.001 multiplier.
Origin and spelling
In France and the English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, the spelling tonne is widespread. This is generally true in Britain; however, the ton used prior to metrication was the long tonLong ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
of 2240 pounds (1,016 kg) and this is so close to the tonne that some people draw little distinction and continue to use the old spelling. For example, even the Guinness Book of World Records accepts metrication
Metrication
Metrication refers to the introduction and use of the SI metric system, the international standard for physical measurements. This has involved a long process of independent and systematic conversions of countries from various local systems of weights and measures. Metrication began in France in...
without marking this by changing the spelling. For the United States, metric ton is the name for this unit used and recommended by NIST. In the US an unqualified mention of a ton almost invariably refers to a short ton
Short ton
The short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...
of 2000 pounds (907.2 kg).
Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
word in general use in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
area since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
(cf. Old English and Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
tunne, Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
and Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
tunna, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
tonne) to designate a large cask, or tun. A full tun, standing about a metre high, could easily weigh a tonne. The old English wine cask volume measurement known as a tun
Tun (unit)
The tun is an old English unit of wine cask volume, holding about 954 litres, almost a cubic metre. Etymologically it is identical to the ton, a unit of mass or weight and constituted approximately 2,048 pints or pounds. Originally, it was a genuine unit of volume and measured 256 gallons ,...
is close to a metric tonne in weight as it defines about 954 litres which for many commonly used liquids (aqueous solutions) approximates to as many kilograms.
The spelling tonne pre-dates the introduction of the SI in 1960; it has been used with this meaning in France since 1842, when there were no metric prefixes for multiples of 106 and above, and is now used as the standard spelling for the metric mass measurement in most English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking countries. In the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial
Imperial unit
The system of imperial units or the imperial system is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which was later refined and reduced. The system came into official use across the British Empire...
and US customary
United States customary units
United States customary units are a system of measurements commonly used in the United States. Many U.S. units are virtually identical to their imperial counterparts, but the U.S. customary system developed from English units used in the British Empire before the system of imperial units was...
units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass. Pronunciation of tonne (the word used in the United Kingdom) and ton is usually identical.
Conversions
One tonne is equivalent to:- One megagram (exactly);
- megagram is the official SI term, but generally not used in industry or shipping, nor colloquiallyColloquialismA colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
poundsPound (mass)The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(exactly by definition), giving approximately - 2205 lb (to four significant digits)
- megagram is the official SI term, but generally not used in industry or shipping, nor colloquially
- 98.42% of a long tonLong tonLong ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
- One long ton (2,240 lb) is 101.605% of a tonne
- 110.23% of a short tonShort tonThe short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...
- One short ton (2,000 lb) is 90.72% of a tonne
Derived units
| Tonnes | Grams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple | Name | Symbol | Multiple | Name | Symbol |
| 100 | tonne | t | 106 | megagram | Mg |
| 103 | kilotonne | kt | 109 | gigagram | Gg |
| 106 | megatonne | Mt | 1012 | teragram | Tg |
| 109 | gigatonne | Gt | 1015 | petagram | Pg |
| 1012 | teratonne | Tt | 1018 | exagram | Eg |
| 1015 | petatonne | Pt | 1021 | zettagram | Zg |
| 1018 | exatonne | Et | 1024 | yottagram | Yg |
Alternate usage
A metric ton unit (MTU) can mean 10 kilogram within metal (e.g., tungsten, manganese) trading, particularly within the USA. It traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% (i.e. 10 kg) of metal.In the case of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, meaning 1,000 kg.
Use of mass as proxy for energy
The tonne of trinitrotoluene (TNT) is used as a proxy for energy, usually of explosions (TNT is a common high explosive). Prefixes are used: kiloton(ne), megaton(ne), gigaton(ne), especially for expressing nuclear weapon yieldNuclear weapon yield
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene , either in kilotons or megatons , but sometimes also in terajoules...
, based on a specific combustion energy of TNT of about 4.2 MJ/kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
(or one thermochemical calorie
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
per milligram). Hence, 1 kt TNT = 4.2 TJ, 1 Mt TNT = 4.2 PJ.
The SI unit of energy is the joule
Joule
The joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...
. Assuming that a TNT explosion releases 1,000 small (thermochemical) calorie
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
s per gram (4.2 kJ
Joule
The joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...
/g), one tonne of TNT is equivalent to 4.2 gigajoules
Joule
The joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...
.
Unit of force
Like the gramGram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
and the kilogram, the tonne gave rise to a (now obsolete) force unit of the same name, the tonne-force, equivalent to about 9.8 kilonewtons: a unit also often called simply "tonne" or "metric ton" without identifying it as a unit of force. In contrast to the tonne as a mass unit, the tonne-force or metric ton-force is not acceptable for use with SI, partly because it is not an exact multiple of the SI unit of force, the newton.
See also
- TonTonThe ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
- Short tonShort tonThe short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...
- Long tonLong tonLong ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
- TonnageTonnageTonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
- Ton (volume)
- Short ton
- Metre-tonne-second system of unitsMetre-tonne-second system of unitsThe metre-tonne-second or mts system of units is a system of physical units. It was invented in France, hence the unit names sthène and pièze, and was adopted only by the Soviet Union in 1933, and abolished there in 1955. It was built on the same principles as the cgs system, but with larger units...
- Tonne of oil equivalent
- Orders of magnitude (mass)Orders of magnitude (mass)To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various mass levels between 10−36 kg and 1060 kg.-Units of mass:...