• MalgasEnglish
        12•3 months ago

        The long (British) and short (American) ton are both 20 hundredweights. The American hundredweight is exactly 100 pounds, while the British hundredweight is 112. You tell me which of those is more reasonable.

        That said, both units did, in fact, come from Britain. The old Imperial system often used the same name for different units depending on what was being measured and for what purpose. Both countries passed laws to simplify and consolidate these measurements in the early 19th century, but in many cases chose different versions to standardize on.

        • @Obi@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2•3 months ago

          Isn’t it also because they would use the same units but undercut the American buyers or something? Same why a pint isn’t a pint?

          • MalgasEnglish
            3•3 months ago

            The pints thing actually has the same cause as I was talking about above: The British standardized around the Elizabethan ale gallon, while America used the Queen Anne wine gallon.

            • The CuuuuubeEnglish
              3•3 months ago

              fuckin’. WHAT!?

              like i absolutely believe you, but this sounds completely insane

      • @MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6•3 months ago

        I mean, sort of. TIL this particular unit came from different definitions of hundredweight. Though, I’d argue this is still kinda of British origin (and the pound).

        My favourite unit to pick on when someone doesn’t want to switch to metric because it’s “European” and they’re proud Americans, is BTU.

        Why yes, how American, British Thermal Units haha

        Don’t be me started on tons of refrigeration 0_0 that’s nightmare fuel

  • sepiEnglish
    24•3 months ago

    Bro they don’t teach that in Meth class

  • Blackout
    16•3 months ago

    We only use tons in America when we are weighing ourselves for new swimsuits.

    • @TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15•3 months ago

      What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

      • @TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeEnglish
        3•3 months ago

        Man i never read all this at once. is the dude Navy or Marines??? i’d reflect how sad of a condition a human must be in to have the weight of all that death on their hands and still need to abide by trite social customs, but also it’s probably just written by some fat guy who never left his parent’s house