A 1-tonne weight (geograph 6511341).jpg
A one-tonne (1000 kilogram) concrete block
General information
Unit systemNon-SI unit accepted for use with SI
Unit ofMass

The tonne (/tʌn/ (About this soundlisten) or /tɒn/ in Australia; symbol: t) is a metric unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms.[1] It is commonly referred to as a metric ton in the United States.[2] It is equivalent to approximately 2,204.6 pounds;[3] 1.102 short tons (US) and 0.984 long tons (UK). The official SI unit is the megagram (symbol: Mg), a less common way to express the same mass.

Symbol and abbreviations

The BIPM symbol for the tonne is t, adopted at the same time as the unit in 1879.[4] Its use is also official for the metric ton in the United States, having been adopted by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).[5][6] It is a symbol, not an abbreviation, and should not be followed by a period. Use of minuscule letter case is significant, and use of other letter combinations can lead to ambiguity. For example, T, MT, mT, Mt and mt are the SI symbols for the tesla, megatesla, millitesla, megatonne (one teragram), and millitonne (one kilogram) respectively. If describing TNT equivalent units of energy, one megatonne of TNT is equivalent to approximately 4.184 petajoules.

Origin and spelling

In English, tonne is the established spelling. It is usually pronounced the same as ton (/tʌn/), but the final "e" can also be pronounced, i.e. "tunnie" (/ˈtʌnɪ/).[7] In Australia, it is also pronounced /tɒn/.[8] In the United States, metric ton is the name for this unit used and recommended by NIST;[5] an unqualified mention of a ton almost invariably refers to a short ton of 2,000 pounds (907 kg), and tonne is rarely used in speech or writing. Both terms are acceptable in Canadian usage.

Before metrication in the UK, the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois or 20 hundredweight (usually referred to as the long ton in the US), equivalent to approximately 1,016 kg, differing by about 1.6% from the tonne. The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 explicitly excluded from use for trade certain imperial units, including the ton, unless the item being sold or the weighing equipment being used was weighed or certified prior to 1 December 1980, and even then only if the buyer was made aware that the weight of the item was measured in imperial units.[9][full citation needed][10][11]

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.[12] A full tun, standing about a metre high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun (an old wine cask volume measurement equivalent to approximately 954 litres) of wine has a relative mass of approximately 954 kg if full of pure water, a little less for wine.

The spelling tonne pre-dates the introduction of the SI in 1960; it has been used with this meaning in France since 1842,[13] 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.[14][15][16][17] In the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau,[18] but these terms are now obsolete.[2] The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass.


One tonne is equivalent to:

  • In kilograms: 1000 kilograms (kg) by definition.[1]
  • In grams: 1000000 grams (g) or 1 megagram (Mg). Megagram is the corresponding official SI unit with the same mass. Mg is distinct from mg, milligram.
  • In pounds: Exactly 1000/0.453 592 37 pounds (lb) by definition of the pound,[19] or approximately 2204.622622 lb.
  • In short tons: Exactly 1/0.907 184 74 short tons (ST), or approximately 1.102311311 ST.
    • One short ton is exactly 0.90718474 t.[20]
  • In long tons: Exactly 1/1.016 046 9088 long tons (LT), or approximately 0.9842065276 LT.
    • One long ton is exactly 1.0160469088 t.[20]

A tonne is the mass of one cubic metre of pure water: at 4 °C one thousand litres of pure water has an absolute mass of one tonne.[21]

Derived units


Tonnes Grams Equivalents*


Alternative usage

A metric ton unit (mtu) can mean 10 kg (approximately 22 lb) within metal (e.g. tungsten, manganese) trading, particularly within the US. It traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% (i.e. 10 kg) of metal.[23][24] The following excerpt from a mining geology textbook describes its usage in the particular case of tungsten:


In the case of uranium, MTU is sometimes used in the sense of metric ton of uranium (1,000 kg).[25][26][27][28]


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 yield, based on a specific combustion energy of TNT of about 4.2 MJ/kg (or one thermochemical calorie per milligram). Hence, 1 t TNT = approx. 4.2 GJ, 1 kt TNT = approx. 4.2 TJ, 1 Mt TNT = approx. 4.2 PJ.

The SI unit of energy is the joule. Assuming that a TNT explosion releases 1,000 small (thermochemical) calories per gram (approx. 4.2 kJ/g), one tonne of TNT is approx. equivalent to 4.2 gigajoules.

In the petroleum industry the tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is a unit of energy: the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil, approx, 42 GJ. There are several slightly different definitions. This is ten times as much as a tonne of TNT because atmospheric oxygen is used.

Unit of force


See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b "The International System of Units (SI), 9th edition" (PDF). 2019. p. 145. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  4. ^ Table 6 Archived 2009-10-01 at the Wayback Machine. BIPM. Retrieved on 2011-07-10.
  5. ^ a b Metric System of Measurement: Interpretation of the International System of Units for the United States Archived 2008-04-09 at the Wayback Machine (PDF). See corrections in the Errata section of [1] Archived 2008-04-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ NIST Special Publication 330, 2019 edition states "The name of the unit with symbol t and defined according to 1 t = 103 kg is called 'metric ton' rather than 'tonne.'".
  10. ^ "Weights and Measures Act 1985". Section 8(1),ActNo. 72of30 October 1985. Retrieved 11 Apr 2016.
  11. ^ "Weights and Measures Act 1985". Schedule 11(13–14),ActNo. 72of30 October 1985. Retrieved 11 Apr 2016.
  12. ^ Harper, Douglas. "tonne". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  13. ^ "Recherche d'un mot". atilf.atilf.fr.
  18. ^ Act of July 28, 1866, codified in 15 U.S.C. § 205
  21. ^ To within 0.003%.
  23. ^ "Platt's Metals Guide to Specifications – Conversion Tables". 8 September 2008. Archived from the original on 8 September 2008.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  24. ^ How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. Unc.edu. Retrieved on 2011-07-10.
  28. ^ NRC Collection of Abbreviations (NUREG-0544, Rev. 4), United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nrc.gov (2011-03-13). Retrieved on 2011-07-10.

External links

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