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Feet per second to Meters per second Converter

Convert Feet per second (ft/s) to Meters per second (m/s) instantly, or use the conversion table below to look up common values.

1 ft/s = 0.3048 m/s

Feet per second to Meters per second conversion table

Feet per second (ft/s)Meters per second (m/s)
10.3048
20.6096
30.9144
41.2192
51.524
103.048
257.62
5015.24
10030.48

How to convert Feet per second to Meters per second

1 ft/s equals 0.3048 m/s. Use the converter above for any value, or read the table for common conversions.

m/s = ft/s × 0.3048 · ft/s = m/s × 3.280839895013123

Multiply a feet per second figure by 0.3048 to get meters per second, or divide it by 3.28084 to go the other way.

Worked examples

  • 1 ft/s= 0.3048 m/s
  • 5 ft/s= 1.524 m/s
  • 10 ft/s= 3.048 m/s
  • 30 ft/s= 9.144 m/s
  • 50 ft/s= 15.24 m/s

What these units are

Feet per second (ft/s). A foot per second is 0.3048 meters per second. It is used in aviation, engineering and wind-speed figures in imperial-measure countries.

Meters per second (m/s). The meter per second is the SI unit of speed. It is used in science and engineering, where distances are in meters and time in seconds.

The 3.6 factor between m/s and km/h is exact, so those two convert losslessly. Knots and miles per hour are exact definitions as well.

Converting Feet per second to Meters per second in practice

Reading the result in meters per second

The meter per second is the SI unit of speed, one meter travelled in one second. One meter per second is exactly 3.6 kilometers per hour, a fixed factor that links the two units.

It is the unit of physics and engineering calculation, of wind and water current measurement, and of athletics, where sprint times and running speeds are reported in meters per second.

Multiplying a speed in m/s by 3.6 gives km/h exactly, and dividing by 3.6 returns m/s without rounding. A knot rests on the nautical mile and a mile per hour on the statute mile, so they are distinct units.

A frequent error is reporting a wind or current figure in knots when the source gave miles per hour, or quoting m/s for a road speed. Matching the unit to the context avoids a silent factor error.

Kilometers per hour, miles per hour and knots are the sibling units. Laboratory and weather measurement work in meters per second, driving and road postings use kilometers per hour or miles per hour, and marine and air navigation use knots.

Checking a feet per second to meters per second conversion

Every speed unit is a distance over a time, so the conversion factor is just the distance factor divided by the time factor. Meters per second to kilometers per hour is a single multiplication by exactly 3.6, and a reader can hold that number.

The candidates for confusion are the mile and the nautical mile, because both appear in speed units. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, and a nautical mile is 1,852 meters against the statute mile's 1,609.344, so a knot is about 15% faster than a mile per hour. Treating the two as interchangeable understates a marine or aviation speed.

To check a speed conversion, convert it to meters per second and compare with something known, such as walking pace. The error to avoid is applying the 3.6 factor to a pair that is not m/s to km/h, when the correct move is to convert the distance and the time separately.

Tanzania reference points

Real quantities, converted into the units on this page.

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