Mph to Ft/s Converter

1. How many Feet per second equal one Mile per hour?
2. Difference between Miles per hour and Feet per second
3. How to convert Mph to Ft/s
4. mph to ft/s conversion table

    How many Feet per second equal one Mile per hour?

Since by definition 5280 feet equal one mile, and an hour has 3600 seconds, through simple calculation we can reach the conclusion that 1.466667 feet per second equal one mile per hour (5280/3600). Historically, the mile varied in length, until it was fixed with an international treaty in 1959. The internationally recognized symbol for miles is "mi" and for feet is "ft". Still, in some places in the US and the UK "m" is used to denote miles, which can lead to confusion with the SI unit "m", which stands for meter. The result is that "mph" and both "fps" and "ft/s" are used commonly as symbols for these speed measurement units.

    Difference between Miles per hour and Feet per second

The mile is a unit for measuring large distances, while feet are used to measure small distances, such as the dimensions of a house, yard, football or baseball field - anywhere where greater precision is required. Due to this last part, feet per second is preferred when greater accuracy is required, while miles per hour is used in everyday talk, e.g. for the speed of a vehicle such as a car, truck, train or plane. Both units are a part of the imperial unit system which is used primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Historically, the foot is an older metric compared to the mile, its existence hard to trace to an origin. The mile is also quite old, for example in the Roman Empire there was the Roman mile, equal to 5,000 feet. It had different definitions through time and depending on the country and location, e.g. English mile, Irish mile, Italian mile. Nowadays both metrics are defined relative to the meter, so they are essentially alternative inconvenient units in the metric system.

    How to convert Mph to Ft/s

When converting units of speed, both the length dimension and the time dimension need to be converted. First, to convert miles to feet, we multiply the distance in miles by 5280 to get the equivalent in feet. Then, to convert hours to seconds we divide by 3600 (the number of seconds in an hour). To convert from mph to fps we combine the two operations, therefore we can say we multiply by 5280/3600, or about 1.466667 ft/s. The conversion can be done with a calculator, or use our online mph to ft/s converter above.

Mph to Fps conversion example

Sample task: convert 30 miles per hour to feet per second. Solution:

Formula:
mph * 1.466667 = fps
Calculation:
30 mph * 1.4667 = 44.000010 fps
End result:
30 mph is equal to 44.000010 fps

    mph to ft/s conversion table