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.)
The official definition of a 1,000 kg is Mg but it’s not very frequently used in practice. Mostly because use of metric tonnes was already diffused
Keep in mind that there is more than just SI units used in Europe in the past. For example if you read through an old thermodynamics textbook in Italian it is likely to use a lot calories and often the CGS system (centimeter grams second and calories).
Sure. I’ve grown up with that stuff, too. And we also get our weather forecast in celsius each day… You don’t even have to open an old textbook for that.
CGS system (centimeter grams second and calories).
For the pleasure to be pedantic, the proper CGS energy unit is the erg, not calorie.
But indeed, even in France, home of the metric, you’ll find people using some customary unit (Calories, or pounds) and even some US units like inches for computer-screen and feet for powered airplanes altitude, and then a shit ton of approximation
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’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.)
The official definition of a 1,000 kg is Mg but it’s not very frequently used in practice. Mostly because use of metric tonnes was already diffused
Keep in mind that there is more than just SI units used in Europe in the past. For example if you read through an old thermodynamics textbook in Italian it is likely to use a lot calories and often the CGS system (centimeter grams second and calories).
Sure. I’ve grown up with that stuff, too. And we also get our weather forecast in celsius each day… You don’t even have to open an old textbook for that.
For the pleasure to be pedantic, the proper CGS energy unit is the erg, not calorie.
But indeed, even in France, home of the metric, you’ll find people using some customary unit (Calories, or pounds) and even some US units like inches for computer-screen and feet for powered airplanes altitude, and then a shit ton of approximation
But it literally is a kiloton? Mostly getting used for explosives if you talk about it, but it’s used:
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.