What is a short ton (American ton)?
A short ton, also known as the American ton, is a unit of weight commonly used in the United States.
It is equivalent to 2,000 pounds or approximately 907.185 kilograms. The short ton is primarily used in the United States for measuring large quantities of goods, such as in the shipping and transportation industries.
In the metric system, the equivalent unit to the short ton is the metric ton, also known as a tonne. One metric ton is equal to 1,000 kilograms or approximately 2,204.62 pounds. The metric ton is the standard unit of weight in most countries around the world and is widely used in international trade and commerce. When converting between short tons and metric tons, it is important to remember that one short ton is equal to approximately 0.907 metric tons. This conversion factor is crucial for accurately converting weights between the two systems of measurement.
What are pounds?
Pounds are an imperial unit of weight normally used in the United States but can be found in use in the United Kingdom and Ireland as well. One pound is equal to 0.4536 kilograms.
We provide several conversion calculators from pounds on this site including the most popular: pounds to kilograms.
Note that pounds are normally referring to avoirdupois pounds. This should not be confused with Troy pounds which is used almost exclusively to measure precious metals.