The way "ton" gets thrown around in the US, you never know if it's the metric ton or the imperial one.
Remek On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 7:05 PM, Carleton MacDonald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From what I understand - > > > > Ton = 2240 lb > > Hundredweight = 112 lb (why not 100 I have no idea) > > Quarter = 28 lb > > Stone = 14 lb > > Pound = well, 1 lb > > > > Outside the UK, as far as I know, the three in the middle are completely > unknown. I wonder what the history was behind all this. > > > > USA: ton = 2000 lb > > The Rest of the World: tonne = 1000 kg > > > > I've mentioned it before but my guess is that all these different names > for one thing (mass) was done in order to keep any one number from getting > too large; 400 years ago large numbers were difficult to comprehend for most > people. > > > > Carleton > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On > Behalf Of *Stephen Humphreys > *Sent:* Thursday, February 14, 2008 04:40 > *To:* U.S. Metric Association > *Subject:* [USMA:40429] RE: UK government cracking down on "stoned" > patients > > > > CWT is also used in car parks and common parlance. > > I've never used or heard "quarters" though (apart from quarters meaning > qtr pound) > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [USMA:40425] RE: UK government cracking down on "stoned" > patients > > Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:03:46 -0500 > > > > >From the first link: > > > > But our hapless stone faces other handicaps: > > > > . Its larger relatives, the quarter and the hundredweight, have already > > fallen into disuse; > > > > -- Except, unfortunately, in change bell ringing. Weighing bells in > > cwt/qr/lb is "tradition" and no one even sees anything funny about it. > > > > Carleton > > Ringer at the Washington National Cathedral > > Weight of tenor bell: 1630 kg > > Shown on the bronze plaque as 3588 lb > > And in all the literature as 32-0-4 > > > > (come to think of it, a reasonably close approximation of the mass of > any > > tower bell is: take the cwt figure, divide it by 2, multiply by 100, and > > that's around the mass in kg - in our example, 32/2 = 16 x 100 = 1600 > kg) > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf > > Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 18:39 > > To: U.S. Metric Association > > Subject: [USMA:40424] UK government cracking down on "stoned" patients > > > > http://www.metricviews.org.uk/2008/02/13/scales-error-risk/ > > > > > http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?N=0&Ne=0+2000+3000+4 > > 000+5000+6000+7000+8000+9000+10000+11000&id=18737 > > > > Ezra > > > > ------------------------------ > > Sounds like? How many syllables? Guess and win prizes with Search > Charades! <http://www.searchcharades.com> >
