Hundredweight (UK) to Metric Tons (cwt (UK) to t)

1 hundredweight (UK) equals 0.05080234544 metric tons exactly.

1 hundredweight (UK) = 0.05080234544 metric tons

How to convert hundredweight (UK) to metric tons

To convert hundredweight (UK) to metric tons, multiply the number of hundredweight (UK) by 0.05080234544. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply metric tons by 19.68413055 (rounded).

metric tons = hundredweight (UK) × 0.05080234544

Example: 10 hundredweight (UK) = 0.5080234544 metric tons.

About these units

Hundredweight (UK) (cwt (UK))

Imperial (British)Traditional unit (still used in some regions)

112 pounds (50.80 kg), eight stone. Twenty of them make a long ton.

Hundredweight, abbreviated cwt, comes from the medieval Latin centum for a hundred, though the English hundred around 1300 varied in size. The Weights and Measures Act 1835 fixed the imperial unit at 112 pounds, which is 8 stone, or about 50.80 kilograms. NIST gives the factor as 50.80235 kilograms and does not mark it as exact.

A rival 100 pound version crossed the Atlantic and was used in the United States and Canada. Britain banned it in 1824 over fraud fears, then legalised it in 1879 as the cental after merchants importing American wheat and tobacco pressed for it. Twenty long hundredweight make a 2,240 pound ton. The unit measured cattle, fodder, fertiliser and coal, and old anvils and church bells carry weights stamped in hundredweight, quarters and pounds. Guernsey and older van and truck ratings still use it.

1 hundredweight (UK) = 50.80234544 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hundredweight; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors

Metric Ton (t)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 kilograms (about 2,204.6 lb), also spelled tonne. Used for cargo, grain and vehicle weights outside the US.

Barrels gave the tonne its name. The word goes back to a Germanic root for a large cask, the tun, and a full tun could easily weigh around a tonne. In English this became ton; the spelling tonne has been used in France since 1842, where it replaced the older tonneau, and pre-metric French tonnes were 2,000 livres, about 979 kg. Once the metric system took hold, the tonne was fixed at 1,000 kilograms, which is the mass of roughly a cubic metre of water.

The unit is accepted for use with the SI, and its symbol is a lowercase t with no period. Because it sits close to the old English ton, the two get confused: the short ton used in the US is about 10 percent lighter than a tonne, while the long ton differs by less than 2 percent. NIST calls the unit the metric ton, and the spelling tonne is rare in the US. Very large quantities are stated in prefixed forms such as the megatonne, which equals a teragram. In explosives, a tonne of TNT is taken as about 4.2 gigajoules.

1 metric ton = 1,000 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tonne; Wikipedia: Ton; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (mass conversions)

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