Lakhs to Billions (long Scale) (lakh to billion)

1 lakh equals 1×10⁻⁷ billions (long scale) exactly.

1 lakh = 1×10⁻⁷ billions (long scale)

How to convert lakhs to billions (long scale)

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

billions (long scale) = lakhs × 1×10⁻⁷

Example: 10 lakhs = 0.000001 billions (long 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

Lakh (lakh)

Indian subcontinentCurrent unit

One hundred thousand (10⁵). The standard unit in the Indian numbering system, written 1,00,000.

Gambling stakes may have named the lakh. The Sanskrit word lakṣa originally meant a mark, a target or a stake in gambling, and in the Classical Sanskrit of the Gupta era it became the numeral for 100,000. English borrowed it from South Asia, and other languages did too: in Malay and Indonesian, laksa means 10,000 instead. The Indian numbering system gives a name to nearly every second power of ten, which is why a hundred thousand gets its own word rather than being called ten myriads or a hundred thousands.

A lakh is 100,000, written 1,00,000 under Indian digit grouping: the first three digits from the right form one group and every later group has two digits. It is the everyday system in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where it is preferred over the international one. Rupee amounts are stated in lakhs, so 150,000 rupees is 1.5 lakh. Indian English also uses lakhs of as a loose phrase for very many, and formal publications usually give foreign currencies in the international system and rupees in lakhs and crores.

1 lakh = 100,000 pieces (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Lakh; Wikipedia: Indian numbering system

Billion (long Scale) (billion)

General & non-SIHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

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.

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.

1 billion (long scale) = 1,000,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Long and short scales; Wikipedia: Billion; Hansard, 20 Dec 1974: Billion (Definition), written answer

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