What’s the difference between yams and sweet potatoes?

https://lemmy.world/post/1993724

What’s the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? - Lemmy.world

Boss and former coworker got into a very amusing argument over this and it got me curious.

Our cans of sweet potatoes have an alternate label on the back that says yams, so apparently not much. (This is in the USA)
You have sweet potato’s in cans? That sounds awful.are they pre-cooked? I don’t understand why?
They’re quicker for making sweet potato pie since they’re already cooked. You add plenty of other ingredients to the filling so there’s less difference in the final product between canned and fresh
That still doesn’t make sense, if you’re making a fresh pie but using canned ingredients, you might as well buy a pie. I’m sure they taste OK, but sweet potato’s are on of the easiest things to cook, if you want them soft before you put them in the pie, put them in a microwave for a bit.
Not all grocery stores have fresh sweet potatoes all the time either
That does make sense lol