Metric Tons to Micrograms (t to µg)

1 metric ton equals 1,000,000,000,000 micrograms exactly.

1 metric ton = 1,000,000,000,000 micrograms

How to convert metric tons to micrograms

To convert metric tons to micrograms, multiply the number of metric tons by 1,000,000,000,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply micrograms by 1×10⁻¹².

micrograms = metric tons × 1,000,000,000,000

Example: 10 metric tons = 10,000,000,000,000 micrograms.

About these units

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)

Microgram (µg)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One millionth of a gram. Used for very small doses such as vitamin B12 and folic acid; often written mcg on labels.

Tiny doses forced the microgram into everyday use. It is one millionth of a gram, written with the SI prefix micro and the Greek letter mu, but that letter caused trouble: handwritten or badly printed, mu can look like a lowercase m, which would turn micro into milli and make a dose a thousand times too large. For that reason the US Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the FDA recommend writing mcg in medical communication, while UK prescribing guidance says microgram should be written out in full rather than abbreviated.

You meet the unit mostly on nutrition labels and in medicine, where amounts such as folic acid and vitamin B12 are given in micrograms. It also matters in laboratories. According to NIST, the old kilogram prototype gave relative uncertainties of a few parts in ten thousand at the milligram level, and fields such as pharmaceuticals and materials science increasingly need dependable accuracy down at the microgram, which was one argument for redefining the kilogram with a fundamental constant. In text where mu is unavailable, people type u or the micro sign instead.

1 microgram = 1×10⁻⁹ kilograms (exactly).

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

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