Recently, I started researching exactly what a ton is because I always get confused with the numbers.

It turns out that it depends on where you are, because it's not the same as the one used in the United States as in the United Kingdom or the metric one used by the rest of the world.

The origin goes back a long way. Originally, 'ton' comes from 'tunne,' a giant barrel used to store wine in medieval times.
It later evolved into a unit of weight, especially for the goods transported by ships.
That's why each country ended up with its own version.

Today, the metric ton is the most common worldwide, equivalent to 1,000 kilograms.
But in the U.S., they still use the short ton (about 907 kilograms), and in the UK, the long ton (more than 1,000 kilograms).
When an American company ships cargo to Europe, they need to clearly specify how much a ton is in each system, because otherwise everything ends up in chaos.

Interestingly, we also use it informally.
We say 'I have tons of work' to exaggerate.
And in science, especially with carbon emissions, they always talk in metric tons.
Even ships have a measurement called DWT that indicates how much cargo they can carry in tons.
It's a unit that ends up being more important than one might think.