Metric or standard? (Not for the children)

After buying a new fat bike tire to pair up with a spare we had at home, I exchanged emails with the owner of the Angry Catfish bike shop about the shop's donation for our trivia night. I mentioned that I hoped the tire would provide more traction than my current tires, to which he responded, "that tire has a shit ton of traction." 

I explained to my coworkers that I didn't think of traction when I thought of shit. Desmond astutely asked whether shop owner meant a metric ton or a standard ton.

Interestingly, this is what I learned: 

• A standard ton is also called a short ton. This is the ton that those of us in the U.S. have always heard about - usually in the context of elephants or whales. The standard or short ton is 2,000 pounds. 
• In the U.K., a "ton" usually means a long ton. It is 2,240 pounds. It is also referred to as an Imperial ton.
• Alternatively, in the U.K., something might be a "tonne" - - a metric ton. It is 2,240.62262 pounds. This is the term, and poundage, usually used in Canada. (I'm not sure why there couldn't be some way to consolidate the two, non-short tons to simplify matters and/or deal with the 0.62262 extra pound.)

The lesson learned, I guess is that if someone offers you a "shit ton" of something good, you'd want to clarify that it is either a long/Imperial ton or a tonne/metric ton, to get an extra 240 or 240.62262 pounds of it. If you're in a "shit ton" of trouble, you'd want to clarify that you're using a standard/short ton.

I leave it to you as to which ton you use to categorize this post.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015