Great Gross to Billions (short Scale) (gt gr to B)
1 great gross equals 0.000001728 billions (short scale) exactly.
How to convert great gross to billions (short scale)
To convert great gross to billions (short scale), multiply the number of great gross by 0.000001728. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply billions (short scale) by 578,703.7037 (rounded).
billions (short scale) = great gross × 0.000001728
Example: 10 great gross = 0.00001728 billions (short scale).
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
Great Gross (gt gr)
Twelve gross (1,728 items), the cube of twelve.
A great gross is twelve gross, which makes 1,728 items: a dozen dozen dozen, or 12 cubed. In duodecimal notation, where twelve is written 10, it is the number written 1,000. The number has a familiar cousin in measurement, since a cubic foot holds 1,728 cubic inches, because 12 inches times 12 times 12 is the same 12³.
Seen as a ladder, each step is a factor of 12: dozen 12, gross 144, great gross 1,728. A great gross equals 144 dozen, 288 half dozens, or 864 pairs. Terms this large are mainly used when buying or shipping goods in bulk, and the Dozenal Society of America, which advocates counting in twelves, promotes them as ready-made names for powers of twelve.
1 great gross = 1,728 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Gross (unit); Wikipedia: Dozen
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
Related conversions
- Billions (short scale) to great gross (reverse)
- Great gross to pieces
- Great gross to dozens
- Great gross to lakhs
- Great gross to millions
- Great gross to crores
- Pieces to billions (short scale)
- Dozens to billions (short scale)
- Lakhs to billions (short scale)
- Millions to billions (short scale)
- Crores to billions (short scale)
- Pairs to billions (short scale)
- Hundred to billions (short scale)
- Gross to billions (short scale)
- Thousand to billions (short scale)
- Trillions (short scale) to billions (short scale)
- Score to billions (short scale)
- Half dozens to billions (short scale)
See all counting & quantity units.