What is the difference between a short and a long ton?
A “short ton” is 2,000 pounds. A “long ton” is 2,240 pounds. The difference used to the difference between total weight and the assumed weight of standard packaging for the contents and for some of the contents to have been ruined. So a long ton of wheat would have a ton of wheat and a couple hundred pounds of packaging and ruined wheat. The long ton was used mostly. But like a thousand other weights that used to be used, the ton was used a lot too. But I guess 2,000 divides a lot easier so for whatever reason we used ton here instead of long ton. That might have been the way everyone went, but Napoleon decided to create the metric system and they based the kilogram on the long ton/tonne. So originally the kilogram ended up one one-thousandeth of a long ton or 2240/1000 pounds. The kilogram has changed in definition just a little over the years so it’s now a little more than 2.2 pounds per kilogram. But the world traded with Great Britain, not Napoleon so you had to trade in GB’s measu
