The short ton (abbreviation: tn or st), also known as the US ton, is a measurement unit equal to . It is commonly used in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where it is known simply as a ton; however, the term is ambiguous, the single word "

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

" being variously used for short,

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, and

metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

tons. The various tons are defined as units of mass.Butcher, Crown and Gentry, NIST Special Publication 1038, The International System of Units (SI) – Conversion Factors for General Use, 2006 They are sometimes used as units of

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

, the

force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

exerted by a mass at standard gravity (e.g., short ton-force). One short ton exerts a weight at one

standard gravity The standard acceleration of gravity or standard acceleration of free fall, often called simply standard gravity and denoted by or , is the nominal gravitational acceleration of an object in a vacuum near the surface of the Earth. It is a constant ...

of 2,000 pound-force (lbf).

United States

In the

, a short ton is usually known simply as a "ton", without distinguishing it from the

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

(), known there as the "metric ton", or the

long ton The long ton, also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,Dictionary.com - ''"a unit for measuring the displacement of a vessel, equal to a long ton of 2240 pounds (about 1016 kg) or 35 cu. ft. (1 cu. m) of seawater."'' or British ton, is a ...

also known as the "imperial ton" (). There are, however, some U.S. applications where unspecified ''tons'' normally mean long tons (for example, naval ships) or metric tons (world grain production figures). Both the long and short ton are defined as 20

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and United States customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the United States customary and British imperial sy ...

s, but a hundredweight is in the US system (short or net hundredweight) and in the imperial system (long or gross hundredweight). A short ton–force is .

References

{{United States Customary Units Units of mass Ton, short

United States

See also

References