How many pounds are there in a ton?
Pounds and tons are both standard measures of weight. Tons are generally used to measure heavier, larger objects, such as trains, planes, and automobiles, while pounds measure smaller objects, such as the fruit you buy at the supermarket. This article will show you how many pounds are there in a ton.
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Different tons
Information on ton
There are three types of tons, a short ton, a long ton, and a Metric ton, or as it is commonly referred to a tonne.
In the United States, a ton generally refers to the short ton, whilst in Britain, it generally refers to a long ton.
Kiloton and megaton
A kiloton is a thousand tonnes, and a megaton is a million tonnes. Of course, this number varies, when we consider metric tons.
Short tone
If you are an American, when you refer to a ton, you probably mean the short ton of 2,000 pounds.
These tons don't have an exact equivalent in the metric system.
English pound
The English pound is a unit of weight, that was created as a part of a system, based on the weight of various grains.
This type of ton is a unit of mass, which equals to 2,240 pounds.
It is commonly referred to as a long ton or a British / English ton.
The metric tonne
The tonne, called the metric tonne by the U.S. Department of Commerce to avoid confusion with the ton, measures mass in the metric system.
In American units, the metric tonne equals 2,204.623 pounds.
Conversion
If you know the weight of an object in tons, you can simply multiply by 2,000 to get its weight in pounds.
If you know the weight of an object in pounds, you need to simply divide by 2,000 to get its weight in tons.
Examples
Question one
If the St. Louis Arch weighs 5,199 tons. How many pounds does it weigh?
Answer one
To convert tons to pounds, you simply multiply by 2,000.
So, 5,199 x 2,000 = 10,398,000.
This means that the St. Louis Arch weighs 10,398,000 pounds, or 10.398 mil pounds.
Question two
An aeroplane contains 147,000 pounds of high strength aluminum. How many tons of aluminum does the plane contain?
Answer
To convert pounds to tons, you can simply divide by 2,000.
147,000 / 2,000 = 73.5.
So, this aircraft contains 73.5 tons of aluminum.
You can use the same method to convert the other tons detailed above.
All you have to do is substitute the 2000 pounds noted for the equivalent amount of either 2,240 or 2,204.623 pounds.
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