Billion (long Scale) (billion)
One million million (10¹²). The traditional British meaning, still used in much of continental Europe (e.g. German Billion). UK government usage switched to the short scale in 1974.
1 billion (long scale) = 1,000,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).
About the billion (long scale)
The long-scale billion is the older meaning, a million million, 10¹². The word was formed from million with the prefix bi-, so it named the second power of a million. The Oxford English Dictionary dates it to the 16th century, and French writers had already used bymillion in 1475 and byllion in 1484. On the long scale each new name is a million times the last: million, billion, trillion at 10¹⁸, with the 10¹⁵ step called a billiard.
Britain used this sense as its most common one until the 1950s, when the short scale began spreading through technical writing and journalism, and the government formally adopted the short scale in 1974. France reverted to the long scale in 1948. Today the long scale is used in continental Europe, French Canada, and the Spanish-speaking Americas, so the same word can mean either 10¹² or 10⁹ depending on the language, and a long-scale billion is 1,000 short-scale billions.
Sources: Wikipedia: Long and short scales; Wikipedia: Billion; Hansard, 20 Dec 1974: Billion (Definition), written answer
Billion (long Scale) conversion chart
1 billion (long scale) expressed in every other counting & quantity unit:
| Unit | 1 billion (long scale) |
|---|---|
| Pieces | 1,000,000,000,000 |
| Dozens | 83,333,333,333 |
| Lakhs | 10,000,000 |
| Millions | 1,000,000 |
| Crores | 100,000 |
| Billions (short Scale) | 1,000 |
| Pairs | 500,000,000,000 |
| Hundred | 10,000,000,000 |
| Gross | 6,944,444,444 |
| Thousand | 1,000,000,000 |
| Trillions (short Scale) | 1 |
| Score | 50,000,000,000 |
| Half Dozens | 166,666,666,667 |
| Quadrillions | 0.001 |
| Reams | 2,000,000,000 |
| Moles | 1.660539067×10⁻¹² |
| Baker's Dozens | 76,923,076,923 |
| Small Gross | 8,333,333,333 |
| Great Gross | 578,703,703.7 |
| Myriads | 100,000,000 |
| Yi / Oku | 10,000 |
| Arab (Indian) | 1,000 |
| Kharab (Indian) | 10 |
| Quires | 40,000,000,000 |
More General & non-SI units
- piece (counting & quantity)
- pair (counting & quantity)
- score (counting & quantity)
- hundred (counting & quantity)
- thousand (counting & quantity)
- million (counting & quantity)
- billion (short scale) (counting & quantity)
- trillion (short scale) (counting & quantity)
- quadrillion (counting & quantity)
- degree (angle)
- gradian (angle)
- turn (angle)
- arcminute (angle)
- arcsecond (angle)
- right angle (angle)
- octant (angle)
Browse all counting & quantity units.