Foot per Hour to Meter per Second
ft/s
m/s
Conversion History
| Conversion | Reuse | Delete |
|---|---|---|
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Quick Reference Table (Foot per Hour to Meter per Second)
| Foot per Hour (ft/s) | Meter per Second (m/s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.00008466666666700533 |
| 5 | 0.00042333333333502667 |
| 10 | 0.00084666666667005333 |
| 50 | 0.00423333333335026667 |
| 100 | 0.00846666666670053333 |
| 500 | 0.04233333333350266667 |
About Foot per Hour (ft/s)
The foot per hour (ft/h) is a very slow imperial unit of speed, analogous to the metric meter per hour, used when movement is so gradual that expressing it in miles per hour would yield impractically small decimals. One foot per hour is about 0.000085 mph or 0.000305 km/h. The unit finds use in geology (fault creep rates), materials science (crack propagation), and some industrial processes (extrusion rates, slow conveyor speeds). It provides a conveniently sized number when the phenomenon moves on the scale of feet per hour rather than miles per day.
Tectonic fault creep can be a few feet per hour during a slow-slip event. Industrial extruders may run at 10–100 ft/h.
About Meter per Second (m/s)
The meter per second (m/s) is the SI base unit of speed, expressing how many meters an object travels in one second. It is the standard unit in physics, engineering, and scientific contexts. Most everyday speeds feel small in m/s — a brisk walk is about 1.4 m/s, a bicycle around 5–7 m/s, a car on a motorway around 30 m/s. The unit scales cleanly through SI prefixes and converts directly to other metric speed units: 1 m/s = 3.6 km/h. Wind speed in meteorology is often reported in m/s in scientific literature.
A sprinter running 100 m in 10 seconds averages 10 m/s. A gentle walking pace is about 1.4 m/s.
Foot per Hour – Frequently Asked Questions
Do tectonic plates actually move in feet per hour?
Tectonic plates move at 2–15 cm/year on average — far below even 1 ft/h. However, during episodic "slow-slip events" on faults (a kind of slow-motion earthquake), the fault face can creep at detectable rates closer to mm/day. True ft/h movement would be catastrophic — the San Andreas Fault creeping at 1 ft/h would translate to 2.4 miles/day, far exceeding any measured geological rate.
What industrial processes run at speeds measured in ft/h?
Metal extrusion (forming rods or tubes by forcing material through a die) often runs at 1–100 ft/h depending on the alloy and die profile. Some ceramic and glass fiber drawing processes operate in this range. Paper mill wet-end press sections can be as slow as 10–50 ft/h during startup. These speeds are slow enough that workers can safely observe and adjust the process manually.
How does ft/h compare to the speed of a melting iceberg?
Icebergs drift with ocean currents at roughly 0.5–1 km/day, equivalent to about 55–110 ft/h. Calving glaciers can lurch forward at thousands of ft/h during surge events. The famous 2017 calving of iceberg A-68 from the Larsen C ice shelf happened over a period of days — so its "speed" of separation was only a few ft/h at most.
Why would anyone use ft/h instead of just saying inches per day?
It depends on the magnitude. 1 ft/h = 24 ft/day = 288 in/day — for something moving a few feet per hour, inches per day becomes a large awkward number. Conversely, for very slow movement (0.01 ft/h = 2.88 in/day), in/day gives a cleaner number. Engineers choose whichever unit gives a value between roughly 1 and 1,000 to minimize leading zeros.
Is there any creature that moves at about 1 ft/h?
Sea stars (starfish) move at roughly 0.06 m/min, which is about 11.8 ft/h — surprisingly fast. Coral polyps and sea anemones are essentially sessile but can contract at a few mm/min. Some fungi extend their hyphal tips at 1–4 mm/h — about 0.003–0.013 ft/h. Slime molds (Physarum polycephalum), often used in computing research, can advance at up to 4 cm/h (about 1.3 ft/h).
Meter per Second – Frequently Asked Questions
How do you convert m/s to km/h?
Multiply by 3.6. The conversion comes from the unit chain: 1 m/s × 3,600 s/hr ÷ 1,000 m/km = 3.6 km/h. So 10 m/s is 36 km/h, and the motorway limit of 130 km/h is about 36.1 m/s. The factor 3.6 is one of the most useful quick conversions in physics.
What is the speed of sound in m/s?
Sound travels at about 343 m/s in dry air at 20°C. This varies with temperature — roughly 0.6 m/s per degree Celsius. In water, sound travels about 1,480 m/s; in steel, around 5,100 m/s. The Mach number expresses speed as a multiple of the local speed of sound.
How fast do Olympic sprinters run in m/s?
Usain Bolt's world record 100 m sprint averaged 10.44 m/s. His peak speed during the race was approximately 12.4 m/s (44.7 km/h), reached around the 60–80 m mark. For comparison, a greyhound runs at about 17 m/s and a cheetah peaks at 33 m/s.
Why do scientists use m/s instead of km/h?
The SI system requires a coherent base unit for all physics calculations. Using m/s keeps equations consistent — kinetic energy (½mv²), force (ma), and pressure (N/m²) all resolve cleanly in SI. Converting to km/h mid-calculation introduces factors of 3.6 that propagate through formulas and cause errors.
What is a fast wind speed in m/s?
The Beaufort scale defines gale force at 17–20 m/s (62–72 km/h). Hurricane-force begins at 33 m/s (119 km/h). The strongest surface wind ever recorded was 113 m/s (408 km/h) during Tropical Cyclone Olivia in 1996 on Barrow Island, Australia.