Kilograms to Long Tons (kg to ton (UK))

1 kilogram equals 0.0009842065276 long tons (rounded).

1 kilogram = 0.0009842065276 long tons

How to convert kilograms to long tons

To convert kilograms to long tons, multiply the number of kilograms by 0.0009842065276. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply long tons by 1,016.046909 (rounded).

long tons = kilograms × 0.0009842065276

Example: 10 kilograms = 0.009842065276 long tons.

About these units

Kilogram (kg)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI base unit of mass. Since 2019 it is defined by fixing the value of the Planck constant, replacing the old platinum-iridium cylinder in Paris.

Oddly for a base unit, the kilogram began life as a derived one. In 1793 revolutionary France defined the grave as the mass of one litre of water, and a decree of 1795 then replaced it with the kilogramme, a name built from the Greek khilioi (a thousand) and gramma, a Late Latin word for a small weight. In 1799 a platinum cylinder, the Kilogramme des Archives, became the physical standard, matching a cubic decimetre of water at its densest, around 4 degrees Celsius. In 1889 the metric community adopted a platinum-iridium cylinder made in 1879, the International Prototype of the Kilogram, nicknamed Le Grand K.

The kilogram is still the only SI base unit with a prefix in its name. Because SI forbids stacked prefixes, a millionth of a kilogram is a milligram rather than a microkilogram, so every mass prefix is attached to the gram. Calibrating every national standard against one object in a vault near Paris meant that all of them drifted relative to it, so in November 2018 member states voted to tie the kilogram to a fixed value of the Planck constant. The change took effect on 20 May 2019. Day to day nothing shifted, but the definition no longer depends on a single piece of metal.

The kilogram is the reference unit for weight & mass on this site.

Sources: NIST: Kilogram introduction (SI redefinition); Wikipedia: Kilogram

Long Ton (ton (UK))

Imperial (British)Current unit

2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg), the imperial or UK ton. Also used for ship displacement.

Before the 15th century an English ton was 2,160 pounds, twenty hundredweight of 108 pounds. Nineteenth-century British definitions included 2,240, 2,352 and 2,400 pounds, though the legal ton was usually 2,240 lb, which is twenty hundredweight of 112 lb. Industry bent the rules: in the 17th and 18th century iron trade, workers were given a 2,240 lb ton of raw material but were expected to return a 2,400 lb ton of processed iron, allowing for waste, and some coal mines delivered long tons but paid miners for a shorter one, which the miners saw as unfair.

The long ton, about 1,016 kg, is within 2 percent of the metric tonne, which makes the two easy to mistake for each other. It is used in the UK, Ireland and most Commonwealth countries that followed the imperial system, although the tonne is now the legal trade unit in the UK, Canada and Australia. Ship displacement has traditionally been quoted in long tons, because a ship cannot be put on a scale and is instead measured by the weight of water it pushes aside. The 2,240 lb figure became the standard for ship design.

1 long ton = 1,016.046909 kilograms (approximately).

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

Related conversions

See all weight & mass units.