Megagram, Short Ton, Long Ton

Date: 03/12/2002 at 14:15:44
From: Lulu
Subject: Megagram

How does a megagram compare to a a short ton or a long ton?

Date: 03/12/2002 at 14:39:18
From: Doctor Sarah
Subject: Re: Megagram

Hi Lulu - thanks for writing to Dr. Math.

From Russ Rowlett's _How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement_:

   http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/   

megagram (Mg)
an SI unit of mass equal to one million grams or 1000 kg. This means 
the megagram is identical to the tonne (metric ton). Large masses are 
almost always stated in tonnes in commercial applications, but 
megagrams are often used in scientific contexts. One megagram equals 
about 2204.623 pounds.

ton (t or tn)
a traditional unit of weight equal to 20 hundredweight. In the United 
States, there are 100 pounds in the hundredweight and exactly 2000 
pounds (907.185 kilograms) in the ton. In Britain, there are 112 
pounds in the hundredweight and 2240 pounds (1016.047 kilograms) in 
the ton. To distinguish between the two units, the British ton is 
called the long ton and the American one is the short ton. In old 
England, a "tun" was a large cask used to store wine. Because these 
tuns were of standard size, more or less, the tun came to represent 
both a volume unit, indicating the capacity of a cask, and also a 
weight unit, indicating the weight of a cask when it was full.

- Doctor Sarah, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/