Billions (short Scale) to Half Dozens (B to ½ doz)
1 billion (short scale) equals 166,666,666.7 half dozens (rounded).
How to convert billions (short scale) to half dozens
To convert billions (short scale) to half dozens, multiply the number of billions (short scale) by 166,666,666.7. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply half dozens by 6×10⁻⁹.
half dozens = billions (short scale) × 166,666,666.7
Example: 10 billions (short scale) = 1,666,666,667 half dozens.
Large-number names differ around the world: this site uses the short scale (billion = 10⁹) by default, and lists the long-scale billion separately.
About these units
Billion (short Scale) (B)
One thousand million (10⁹). The meaning used in the US, UK and most English-speaking countries today.
For decades British and American speakers meant different things by billion. The short-scale sense, a thousand million, took hold in the United States in the 19th century, while Britain kept the older meaning of a million million. From the 1950s the short scale spread through British technical writing and journalism, and Winston Churchill had remarked in 1941 that for practical financial purposes a billion was a thousand millions.
The official break came on December 20, 1974. Asked in Parliament whether ministers would be required to use the traditional British meaning, Prime Minister Harold Wilson answered no, explaining that billion was now used internationally for 1,000 million and that using it any other way would cause confusion. He conceded it could still be read as a million million and asked colleagues to avoid ambiguity. Today a billion is 10⁹, matching the SI prefix giga, and the UN projected that world population would reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
1 billion (short scale) = 1,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Hansard, 20 Dec 1974: Billion (Definition), written answer; Wikipedia: Billion; United Nations: Day of Eight Billion
Half Dozen (½ doz)
Six items.
Half a dozen is six, and the phrase is best known from an idiom: six of one, half a dozen of the other. The saying works because the two quantities are identical, merely named differently, so it dismisses a choice between two options as pointless. The unit rests on the dozen, which came into English from Old French douzaine and Latin duodecim, and halving twelve leaves a number that still divides evenly by two and three.
In counting terms, half a dozen is 6 pieces or 3 pairs, and two of them make a dozen. A gross contains 24 half dozens, and a great gross contains 288. Because the larger bulk units are all built from twelves, half a dozen fits into every one of them with no remainder.
1 half dozen = 6 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Dozen
Related conversions
- Half dozens to billions (short scale) (reverse)
- Billions (short scale) to pieces
- Billions (short scale) to dozens
- Billions (short scale) to lakhs
- Billions (short scale) to millions
- Billions (short scale) to crores
- Billions (short scale) to pairs
- Billions (short scale) to hundred
- Billions (short scale) to gross
- Billions (short scale) to thousand
- Billions (short scale) to trillions (short scale)
- Billions (short scale) to score
- Billions (short scale) to quadrillions
- Pieces to half dozens
- Dozens to half dozens
- Lakhs to half dozens
- Millions to half dozens
- Crores to half dozens
See all counting & quantity units.