Hundred to Billions (short Scale) (100 to B)

1 hundred equals 1×10⁻⁷ billions (short scale) exactly.

1 hundred = 1×10⁻⁷ billions (short scale)

How to convert hundred to billions (short scale)

To convert hundred to billions (short scale), multiply the number of hundred by 1×10⁻⁷. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply billions (short scale) by 10,000,000.

billions (short scale) = hundred × 1×10⁻⁷

Example: 10 hundred = 0.000001 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

Hundred (100)

General & non-SICurrent unit

One hundred.

The English word hundred descends from Old English hundred and, further back, from a Proto-Germanic compound that joined the old root for 100 with a word meaning count or row. For much of history it did not always mean 100. Old Norse counted large numbers in twelves of tens, and medieval England used a long hundred of 120 beside the short hundred of 100. Around 1300 the Assize of Weights and Measures had both in play: a hundred kippers or a hundred ells of hemp canvas or linen meant 120, while a hundred fresh herring meant 100.

The word also named a historical subdivision of southern English counties, notionally 12,000 acres. Today a hundred is simply ten tens, five score, or a tenth of a thousand, and the SI prefix hecto stands for 10². The long hundred faded as Arabic numerals, which rely on base 10, spread from the 14th century onward.

1 hundred = 100 pieces (exactly).

Sources: Wiktionary: hundred; Wikipedia: Long hundred; BIPM SI Brochure, 9th edition (2019)

Billion (short Scale) (B)

General & non-SICurrent unit

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

See all counting & quantity units.