# Sixteen tons **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 10, 2001, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287 "2001-06-10T08:53:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EKE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f08c70/32.png) [@EKE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EKE)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/1 "2001-06-10T08:53:32Z")
Sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper - why is the weight that falls on characters’ heads in cartoons and games always sixteen tons, and not, say, fifteen or seventeen? ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/2 "2001-06-10T09:10:09Z")
It was always 16 tons in Monty Python, although the characters did occasionally complain of the absurdity of huge 16-ton weights. They were usually punished for this insolence by being crushed with a 16-ton weight. Anyway my best guess, and it’s pretty bad, is that 16 is part of the same mathematical pattern that produced 16mb computers - 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64… and that’s where I’m at now. Some people have 128mb but they’re just showing off. I seem to remember there was once a mathmatical/scientific reason for this pattern, but that it’s now a question of convention, like QWERTY keyboards and the House of Lords ;). ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/3 "2001-06-10T09:20:46Z")
I don’t know about the weight, but there is a simple and still valid reason for why memory size tends to be a power of two. Memory is an information storage device with a large number of cells. Each cell has an address, and you save information in a cell or retrieve it by specifying its address. The address is specified by a certain number of wires - if it has one address line, it can specify an address of 0 or 1 (the voltage on the line can be high or low), so such a memory chip can store 2 bits. If it has two address lines, you can specify 2^2=4 bits. If it has 10 address lines you can specify 2^10=1024 bits, and so on. Of course if you wanted to, you can manufacture a memory chip with 10 address lines that only stores 900 bits, but there usually isn’t much point in doing it - it will be difficult to use because some addresses will be valid and some not, and it won’t be much cheaper than a 1024 bit chip. ---
**Author:** ![Doc\_Nickel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@Doc\_Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doc_Nickel)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/4 "2001-06-10T10:09:04Z")
What I want to know is, where did the whole “big iron weight” idea come from? I mean, did someone actually need a multi-ton iron, semi-pyramidal weight with some sort of lifting ring on top? If so, for what was it used? For that matter, I’ve never seen a cartoon barbell- the rod with spherical weights on the end. All the barbells I’ve seen have platelike removable weights… So how long has it been since somebody used weights such as one sees in the classic cartoons? We all know that anvils are heavy, sure, but how many people “learned” that from a cartoon, and have never seen an anvil in their life, let alone seen one used, let alone actually used one? And as long as we’re on the whole idea of comical falling weights, HAS anyone living in a large city actually been struck by a falling floor-type safe, and if so, what was it doing up there anyway? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/5 "2001-06-10T15:31:35Z")
> [@](#): > > On the classic 16-Ton Weight gag: The practice of using ton weights > that are powers of two originates in the old method of weighing cargo > for shipping. These weights, weighing 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 tons can > then be combined to balance any weight up to 31 tons. This is also > the origin of the weight for the song “16 Tons”, in case you’re > wondering. (Yes, the song isn’t about shipping, but a similar > weighing system was used in mining.) The 16 ton weight therefore > naturally became a Very Heavy Object. from [here](http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:kokJlk9R6uk:www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/2636/crg/nacrg.txt+16-ton+weight+roadrunner&hl=en). I don’t vouch for the accuracy of the idea. It sounds logical and was all I could find searching rather quickly. The old-style dumbbells were basically what you saw from the mid-1800’s until the 1940’s or later. Considering that they must have been used first in Vaudeville gags, then in early silent films, then in cartoons, this would have been the concept of an average person. Still working on the pyramid-shaped weight. I wonder what shape the weights referred to in my shipping cite were? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/6 "2001-06-10T15:51:22Z")
Want an idea as to how heavy anvils really are? Watch [Life is Beautiful](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0118799). ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/7 "2001-06-10T18:29:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doc Nickel \* > \*\*What I want to know is, where did the whole “big iron weight” idea come from? I mean, did someone actually need a multi-ton iron, semi-pyramidal weight with some sort of lifting ring on top? If so, for what was it used? \*\* Dude! You never watched Python? You need the weight on the end of a lever-driven pulley, so that you can defend yourself unarmed from a mad attacker with a piece of fruit. Bananas, apples, mangoes, it makes no difference. You’re safe with a multi-ton iron semi-pyramidal weight with a lifting ring on the top! Of course in the extremely unlikely event that the weight fails, you simply RELEASE THE TIGER… This is all part of the only martial art ever to have come from Britain. And dashed effective it is too. ---
**Author:** ![Doc\_Nickel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@Doc\_Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doc_Nickel)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/8 "2001-06-10T19:01:15Z")
“You shot 'im! You shot 'im dead!” “‘E was attackin’ me with a bananna!” “But you told 'im to!” “Look mate, I’m only doin’ me job!” Yes, I’m fully aware of how Sargeant Major Cleese taught Graham “Mr. Apricot” Chapman and Eric “Pointed sticks” Idle the manly art of self defense. My question was, Warner Bros. cartoons used the same apparently classic pyramid/trapezoid-shape-with-a-ring weight some thirty years prior to the advent of Messrs. Python. Presumably the use of such weights came from some obscure real-life application. What was it? And on the same note, has anyone, ever, seen a crane swing a large spherical iron weight in order to knock down a building? I saw one very old photograph of something similar, but it was a teardrop shaped concrete weight, and was only lifted and dropped through wood-frame building floors. (Not swung, in other words.) ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/9 "2001-06-10T19:56:38Z")
This is totally a guess: The weight in question would have a low center of gravity and wouldn’t wobble as perhaps a cyclinder shaped weight would. If it hit bottom it wouldn’t tend to tip over or get wedged in if space was limited. If you were having to change the weights very often you wouldn’t want them ball shaped and rolling around (maybe a large one on your toe). The balls used in demolition, work better because any shape with edges and corners would soon get beat up and then would not swing true. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/10 "2001-06-10T20:31:48Z")
I think that shape of weight is a typical one for balance-type scales. You put the thing you want to weigh on one side of the balance, and put known weights on the other side. Normally the weights would be 1 oz., 1 lb., etc, but if you’re making a cartoon you can scale them up to 16 tons if you want. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/11 "2001-06-10T20:57:26Z")
**manduck** said > [@](#): > > I think that shape of weight is a typical one for balance-type scales. . No! Scales typically used cylindrical shapes in the last few hundred years. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/12 "2001-06-10T22:00:53Z")
> [@](#): > > And on the same note, has anyone, ever, seen a crane swing a large spherical iron weight in order to knock down a building? It took a while to find a clear picture of a relatively modern day wreaking ball in use (look at the last picture on the page below), but they are certainly still in use. [http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/3rdst2.html](http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/3rdst2.html) Here’s another (very recent) picture of a stadium being torn down with wreaking ball cranes, just not as clear as the previous one. [http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2fc6c/mem148.html](http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2fc6c/mem148.html) ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2001, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/13 "2001-06-11T03:58:47Z")
I don’t know about the cartoons but Ernie Fords song was about being trapped in the system. “You load 16 tons and what do you get? another day older and deeper in debt. St Peter don’t ya call me cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.” 16 tons with a shovel is a lot of shoveling. According to the song a days worth of back breaking work. He couldn’t do any more work and he was slipping deeper into debt to the company. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sixteen-tons/68287/14 "2001-06-11T05:13:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doc Nickel \* > \*\* > And on the same note, has anyone, ever, seen a crane swing a large spherical iron weight in order to knock down a building? I saw one very old photograph of something similar, but it was a teardrop shaped concrete weight, and was only lifted and dropped through wood-frame building floors. (Not swung, in other words.) \*\* I saw it on _Buffy, the Vampire Slayer_, when Xander the construction worker used the crane-and-big ball through a wall to knock down Gloria, saying “The part-time bowler picked up a spare.”