4 ms·

Tonne is unfortunately overloaded, the US and the UK have their own versions, but for the rest of the world is on metric, and a tonne is 1000 kg. The Falcon 9 w

Tonne is unfortunately overloaded, the US and the UK have their own versions, but for the rest of the world is on metric, and a tonne is 1000 kg. The Falcon 9 weighing "433 t" reads way more elegantly to me.

djaychela 1y ago
FTR no-one I know (other than in old school industry about 20 years ago) used the UK 'Ton' any more. One place of work made this clear by having different pronuncication ('Tonn-ey') as they were an old-school foundry. And the spelling is different from wherever I've seen it. The nuclear industry was using metric weights fully when I did my apprenticeship in it in the late 1980s. Good job really as I think a conversion error could be catastrophic. Same goes for gallons though, US gallon is smaller than a UK one.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  NASA is metric but its whole supply chain was not leading to such a catastrophic conversion error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_...
softfalcon 1y ago
Here in Canada (where the mixup of metric vs imperial tonnes is common) we just say "metric tonnes" and move on. Everyone here knows that means 1000 kg. European colleagues regularly go, "what other kind of tonnes are there?" and we get to share the joke of how silly Americans are for still using imperial tonnes.
- robocat 1y ago
  I've often seen mt written as the units for metric tons. There's some ODD behavior where people in the US want to fuck up metric units (MB being the obvious in my lifetime non-engineer renaming of the meaning of a unit). I find the MM of finance confusing (not sure of origin). Calling tonnes, metric "tons", seems to be a US confusing thing. Or spelling metres vs meters. Or creating units that depend on something country specific like football field (is that FIFA (EU), US, Canadian, Aussie). Actually it seems common to desire to create industry units: https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-conver... Sort of a NIH at the county level.
  - inemesitaffia 1y ago
    mm is mille X mille. As in thousand
pseudocomposer 1y ago
Unless https://www.math.net/pounds-to-tons https://www.math.net/pounds-to-tons is severely wrong, a US ton is 2200lbs, UK 2240lbs, metric 2204lbs. Put a different way, US to metric is a <0.2% difference (the smallest), US to UK is a <2% difference (the biggest). At a scale of 433 tons, it doesn’t really matter much which kind of tons (unless you’re actually doing the rocket science, of course).
- nneonneo 1y ago
  US ton is 2000 lb, not 2200. I spent some time in the US and had never heard of a ton meaning 2200 lb. Unfortunately, that's a 10% error off of a metric ton.
  - jjj_throw 1y ago
    US short ton is 2000lbs, long ton is ~2200.
frereubu 1y ago
My understanding was that "ton" is the US / imperial and "tonne" is the metric one, but I see people using them interchangeably here, so I guess whether that's technically true or not is a bit moot!
- schiffern 1y ago
  The spelling "tonne" is only used in countries where there might be ambiguity with the short ton. For the rest of the world, "ton" (abbreviation: t) is the metric ton. Technically it's classified as a "Non-SI unit that is accepted for use with SI," like litres or degrees Celsius. Source is the official SI brochure: https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/ https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/
  - frereubu 1y ago
    Thanks - TIL.

djaychela 1y ago

FTR no-one I know (other than in old school industry about 20 years ago) used the UK 'Ton' any more. One place of work made this clear by having different pronuncication ('Tonn-ey') as they were an old-school foundry. And the spelling is different from wherever I've seen it. The nuclear industry was using metric weights fully when I did my apprenticeship in it in the late 1980s. Good job really as I think a conversion error could be catastrophic. Same goes for gallons though, US gallon is smaller than a UK one.

bobthepanda 1y ago
NASA is metric but its whole supply chain was not leading to such a catastrophic conversion error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_...

softfalcon 1y ago

Here in Canada (where the mixup of metric vs imperial tonnes is common) we just say "metric tonnes" and move on. Everyone here knows that means 1000 kg. European colleagues regularly go, "what other kind of tonnes are there?" and we get to share the joke of how silly Americans are for still using imperial tonnes.

robocat 1y ago
I've often seen mt written as the units for metric tons. There's some ODD behavior where people in the US want to fuck up metric units (MB being the obvious in my lifetime non-engineer renaming of the meaning of a unit). I find the MM of finance confusing (not sure of origin). Calling tonnes, metric "tons", seems to be a US confusing thing. Or spelling metres vs meters. Or creating units that depend on something country specific like football field (is that FIFA (EU), US, Canadian, Aussie). Actually it seems common to desire to create industry units: https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-conver... Sort of a NIH at the county level.
- inemesitaffia 1y ago
  mm is mille X mille. As in thousand

pseudocomposer 1y ago

Unless https://www.math.net/pounds-to-tons https://www.math.net/pounds-to-tons is severely wrong, a US ton is 2200lbs, UK 2240lbs, metric 2204lbs. Put a different way, US to metric is a <0.2% difference (the smallest), US to UK is a <2% difference (the biggest). At a scale of 433 tons, it doesn’t really matter much which kind of tons (unless you’re actually doing the rocket science, of course).

nneonneo 1y ago
US ton is 2000 lb, not 2200. I spent some time in the US and had never heard of a ton meaning 2200 lb. Unfortunately, that's a 10% error off of a metric ton.
- jjj_throw 1y ago
  US short ton is 2000lbs, long ton is ~2200.

frereubu 1y ago

My understanding was that "ton" is the US / imperial and "tonne" is the metric one, but I see people using them interchangeably here, so I guess whether that's technically true or not is a bit moot!

schiffern 1y ago
The spelling "tonne" is only used in countries where there might be ambiguity with the short ton. For the rest of the world, "ton" (abbreviation: t) is the metric ton. Technically it's classified as a "Non-SI unit that is accepted for use with SI," like litres or degrees Celsius. Source is the official SI brochure: https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/ https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/
- frereubu 1y ago
  Thanks - TIL.