When i first came to America there were a lot of things new for me, including the measurements used. So I did a little digging and found out quit interesting things simply about the units we use every day. Did you know?
That the word “ton” is derived from the French “tonnerre,” or “thunder,” from the sound wine barrels made when rolled. But there are various standards of a ton. You get a long ton, a short ton and metric ton. A US ton, the short ton, is equivalent to 2000 pounds (907.185 kilograms). A British ton, the long ton or gross ton, is 2240 pounds (1016.047 kilograms) because there are 112 pounds in their hundredweight.
That the United States, Great Britain and Canada each also had their own definition of the inch. It was only in 1958 that the inch was standardized to 25.4 millimetres exactly. A problem still exists for the foot, where the International Foot is based on the 25.4 mm inch, but the Survey Foot – aka the U.S. Survey Foot – is based on the 25.40005 mm inch. One International Foot equals 0.999998 U.S. Survey Feet. Over 100 miles (160 km) they differ by 1.05 ft (32 cm).
See: Did you know?
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