Pieces to Billions (long Scale) (pc to billion)
1 piece equals 1×10⁻¹² billions (long scale) exactly.
How to convert pieces to billions (long scale)
To convert pieces to billions (long scale), multiply the number of pieces by 1×10⁻¹². This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply billions (long scale) by 1,000,000,000,000.
billions (long scale) = pieces × 1×10⁻¹²
Example: 10 pieces = 1×10⁻¹¹ 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
Piece (pc)
A single item.
Piece is the plain unit for counting individual items, with no grouping implied. The word reached English from Old French piece, which came from Late Latin pecia or petia, meaning a fragment or a parcel of land. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, though Wiktionary notes a possible Gaulish source. It displaced the native Old English styce, which meant the same kind of thing.
Wiktionary defines it as a single item belonging to a class of similar items, and the word turns up in compounds such as by the piece, piece rate, and piecework. Every other counting unit in this family is just a fixed number of pieces: a pair is 2, a dozen 12, a gross 144, and a great gross 1,728. Treating the piece as the base is what lets any of them convert into any other by simple multiplication or division.
The piece is the reference unit for counting & quantity on this site.
Sources: Wiktionary: piece
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.
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
Related conversions
- Billions (long scale) to pieces (reverse)
- Pieces to dozens
- Pieces to lakhs
- Pieces to millions
- Pieces to crores
- Pieces to billions (short scale)
- Pieces to pairs
- Pieces to hundred
- Pieces to gross
- Pieces to thousand
- Pieces to trillions (short scale)
- Pieces to score
- Pieces to half dozens
- Dozens to billions (long scale)
- Lakhs to billions (long scale)
- Millions to billions (long scale)
- Crores to billions (long scale)
- Billions (short scale) to billions (long scale)
See all counting & quantity units.