Thread by @ceddytrad

The logic of the imperial system is just spectacular.

Take the long ton, for instance.

It turns out, this UK unit is still used in some international trade contexts.

#thread #xl8 #weights #FridayThoughts

Just don’t confuse it with the short ton (2000 lb) used in the US.

Or the metric tonne (1000 kg), used everywhere people have a taste for logic.

Fun fact: the long ton is equal to exactly 2240 pounds.

Why 2240, you might ask? (And I honestly feel that would be a good question at this point.)

Well, I can only guess, but I think the inventor must really have loved multiples of 20 and hated multiples of 100.

Nothing else seems to stand out, here.

And to simplify matters even further, it turns out the long ton is made up of 20 hundredweight, a really common measurement just about NOWHERE.

What’s more, they’re abbreviated for simplicity’s sake: cwt.

Now isn’t that fun.

Each cwt (really a transparent abbreviation if ever there were one) weighs a whopping 8 stone.

Now, for the benefit of those who didn’t grow up with stone, a stone is 14 pounds (a number by all accounts chosen to make it easy to multiply in your head), which means that 1 cwt = 112 lb.

Simple.

So, with that in mind, the long ton is calculated as: 14 lb (in a stone) x 8 stone (in a cwt) x 20 hundredweight (in a long ton) = 2240 lb.

All invented before the calculator…

Chapeau.