I think it’s written ‘tonne’. And you should call it metric tonne if it’s not clear from the context.
Wikipedia says:
The tonne is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States customary units) and the long ton (British imperial units). The official SI unit is the megagram (symbol: Mg), a less common way to express the same amount.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne
So yes, you can call it a megagramme and you’d be right. But we european people also sometimes do silly stuff and colloquially use wrong things. For example we also say it’s 20 degrees celsius outside. And that’s not the proper SI unit either. But that’s kinda another topic.
Wait, what’s the correct SI unit for 20 degrees Celsius then? I’ve never heard anything besides that.
Edit: Nevermind, someone already asked the same question as me a bit further down. Disregard this question.
It’s typically shortened as t. So a mass of 1,000,000 kg will be referred as 1,000 t
Normally it’s clear from the context and what units you are using so there is no ambiguity.
I’m not so sure. But maybe you’re right. I think I was confusing that with tonnage of a ship. But that’s a whole other concept and you can’t really confuse the two.
With the 1000 t thats only because kg is a stupid SI unit and leads to the whole debacle. If there wasn’t a prefix in the unit name itself, I think people would have started to use the SI unit prefixes correctly at some point instead of inventing and omitting other names to compensate.
I think I’ve heard things like megatonne. For example you can say your nuclear bomb has X megaton tnt equivalent.
A mass of a million kg should be 1 gigagram or 1 kilotonne. Not 1000t. (Edit: And not a kilotonne either, rather a mega-kilogram.)
But it literally is a kiloton? Mostly getting used for explosives if you talk about it, but it’s used:
kiloton /ˈkɪlə(ʊ)tʌn/
noun: kiloton; plural noun: kilotons; noun: kilotonne; plural noun: kilotonnes
a unit of explosive power equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT.The reason megagram isn’t used much is because it would be shortened to mg. Which is usually milligram. Sure, you could go the “Mg” route compared to “mg”, but that sucks. So “t” for ton works well. It’s just another name though, it doesn’t matter.
Yeah, I know. But you have the problem with the letter ‘m’ everytime. You just have to pay attention and write it correctly. And there is also ‘micro-’ in addition to the ‘milli’ and ‘mega’ you mentioned. However, most of the time it’s unlikely you’re off by a factor of 1 billion and won’t notice. Just do it right: 'µ, ‘m’, ‘M’. (Also there are other letters like the ‘p’. But there’s an even bigger difference between those two.)
If you listen to my school teacher, you’re not supposed to use SI prefixes with other things. I think that’s not true but would apply to the ‘kiloton’. People wouldn’t like me talking about a ‘kilo-foot’ or ‘milli-yard’… I’ve had 3 deca-spoons of soup or there were 2.5 kilo-people at the concert… It took me 15 milli-days to finish the task… What? 1k8 euros for a graphics card?
I don’t think there is a clear line. The SI unit system is good. But we still have plenty things that aren’t a certain way because of history and ‘reasons’.
I think it’s mostly down to the fact the units could be mixed when written down.
Mg and mg should not create confusion in theory the standard milion prefix in metric is a capital M.
More-common terms in any language tend to be shorter or at least less standard/more irregular.
I’ve never heard of gigameter or gigalitre
Also, same issue as with MB and mb, you might confuse megagram with milligram
Although that’s not really the reason, more like an argument to keep it this way
If you think about it, tonne is actually a better base unit than grams, because it aligns better with the cubic metre (1m^3 = (approx.) 1 tonne of water.)
So really, I would ask why kilograms and milligrams, and not millitonnes and microtonnes?
I can picture it now. I weigh 70 millitonnes.
I brought a shit ton of tacos. Or I have supplied us with a faecal megagram of tacos. You be the judge.
Never heard anyone use megameters either. They either stay on kilometer, or switch to miles. And miles mean different things from one place to the next.
Megameters are somewhat common in astronomy, for example when describing low orbital hights.
Really? I would have though that they would use the scientific notation in meters, so that the numbers are explicitly clear.
Never seen that for a distance, interesting thought.
