Scruples to Metric Tons (℈ to t)

1 scruple equals 0.0000012959782 metric tons exactly.

1 scruple = 0.0000012959782 metric tons

How to convert scruples to metric tons

To convert scruples to metric tons, multiply the number of scruples by 0.0000012959782. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply metric tons by 771,617.9176 (rounded).

metric tons = scruples × 0.0000012959782

Example: 10 scruples = 0.000012959782 metric tons.

About these units

Scruple (℈)

Troy & apothecaries'Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

20 grains (1.296 g). A unit of the old apothecaries' system of weights.

Physicians and pharmacists once wrote prescriptions in Latin, and the scruple appeared in them as a small symbol followed by a Roman numeral. At 20 grains, it was the smallest of the larger apothecaries' units and amounts to roughly 1.296 grams. Three scruples made a dram, and the grain beneath it is about 64.8 milligrams.

Pharmacists in Britain were pushed away from the old scheme in the nineteenth century. The Medical Act 1858 required avoirdupois weights, and the 1864 British Pharmacopoeia advised dropping the scruple and the dram, yet the troy-based apothecaries' system lingered in practice. It became obsolete for drugs when metric measures became mandatory in 1971, and the Weights and Measures Act 1976 abolished it.

Today the unit survives mainly as a historical curiosity in old recipes and medical texts. A modern pharmacist would give the same dose as about 1.3 grams.

1 scruple = 0.0012959782 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Apothecaries' system; Wikipedia: Troy weight

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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