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

1 hundredweight (US) equals 0.045359237 metric tons exactly.

1 hundredweight (US) = 0.045359237 metric tons

How to convert hundredweight (US) to metric tons

To convert hundredweight (US) to metric tons, multiply the number of hundredweight (US) by 0.045359237. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply metric tons by 22.04622622 (rounded).

metric tons = hundredweight (US) × 0.045359237

Example: 10 hundredweight (US) = 0.45359237 metric tons.

About these units

Hundredweight (US) (cwt (US))

US customaryTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

100 pounds (45.36 kg), also called the short hundredweight or cental.

Hundredweight is a half-translated Latin idea: centum means one hundred, and medieval English merchants spoke of a centum weight or quintal. Around 1300 several different hundreds were in use as weights. The British version was fixed at 8 stone, or 112 pounds (50.80 kg), by the Weights and Measures Act 1835, so that 20 of them made a long ton of 2,240 pounds. The United States and Canada instead adopted a plain 100 pounds, the figure of 45.36 kg used here.

That round American hundredweight is also called the short hundredweight, and 20 of them make the 2,000-pound short ton. Britain's 1824 act had barred a 100-pound measure because of fraud concerns, but in 1879 it was legalised there as the cental, after merchants importing American wheat and tobacco pressed for it. In the US the unit survives in livestock sales, some grains and oilseeds, paper and certain futures contracts. NIST lists it as 100 lb, about 45.359 kg.

1 hundredweight (US) = 45.359237 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hundredweight; NIST Guide to the SI, 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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