Speed Conversion
A comprehensive speed converter for various units, including mph, kph, knots, and meters per second.
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The Ultimate Guide to Speed Conversions
The Speed Conversion calculator is a comprehensive tool for converting between various units of speed. Whether you're a driver, pilot, sailor, runner, or scientist, this calculator helps you translate speeds from one system of measurement to another with ease and precision.
Common Units of Speed
Our calculator handles all the most common units of speed, each with its own specific application:
- Miles per hour (mph): The standard unit for road travel speed in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- Kilometers per hour (km/h): The standard unit for road travel speed in most of the world.
- Meters per second (m/s): The SI (International System of Units) base unit for speed, commonly used in scientific and physics calculations.
- Feet per second (ft/s): An imperial/US customary unit often used in engineering and physics contexts.
- Knot (kn): A unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour. It is the standard unit for maritime and aviation speed.
How the Conversions Work
The calculator uses established mathematical factors to convert from one unit to another. The process always starts by converting the input value to the base SI unit (meters per second), and then converting from there to the desired output unit.
Key Conversion Factors:
- 1 mile = 1609.34 meters
- 1 kilometer = 1000 meters
- 1 foot = 0.3048 meters
- 1 knot = 0.514444 meters per second
- 1 hour = 3600 seconds
Practical Example: Driving in Europe
An American tourist rents a car in France. Their car's speedometer is in km/h, but they are used to thinking in mph. They see a speed limit sign that says 130 km/h.
To understand how fast that is, they can use the calculator:
- Enter "130" in the kilometers per hour field.
- The calculator instantly provides the equivalent speeds in other units.
- They look at the "Miles per hour" result, which shows approximately 80.78 mph.
This tells the driver that the highway speed limit is about 81 mph, giving them a familiar frame of reference for how fast they should be driving.
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