Metre per second

"m/s" redirects here. For other uses, see m/s (disambiguation).

The metre per second is the unit of both speed (a scalar quantity) and velocity (a vector quantity, which has direction and magnitude) in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the speed of a body covering a distance of one metre in a time of one second. According to the definition of metre,^[1] 1 m/s is exactly ${\textstyle {\frac {1}{299792458}}}$ of the speed of light.

Metre per second
Unit system	SI
Unit of	speed
Symbol	m/s
Conversions
1 m/s in ...	... is equal to ...
km/h	3.6
mph	2.2369
kn	1.9438
ft/s	3.2808

The SI unit symbols are m/s, m·s⁻¹, m s⁻¹, or ⁠m/s⁠.^[2]

Conversions

1 m/s is equivalent to:

= 3.6 km/h (exactly)^[3]

≈ 3.2808 feet per second (approximately)^[4]

≈ 2.2369 miles per hour (approximately)^[5]

≈ 1.9438 knots (approximately)^[6]

1 foot per second = 0.3048 m/s (exactly)^[7]

1 mile per hour = 0.44704 m/s (exactly)^[8]

1 km/h = 0.27 m/s (exactly)^[9]

Relation to other measures

The benz, named in honour of Karl Benz, has been proposed as a name for one metre per second.^[10] Although it has seen some support as a practical unit,^[11] primarily from German sources,^[10] it was rejected as the SI unit of velocity^[12] and has not seen widespread use or acceptance.^[13]

Unicode character

The "metre per second" symbol is encoded by Unicode at code point U+33A7 ㎧ SQUARE M OVER S.^[14]

See also

• Orders of magnitude (speed)
• Metre per second squared
• Metre

References

1. "Definitions of the SI base units". physics.nist.gov. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
2. "SI brochure, Section 5.1". Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
3. CDX Automotive (2013). South African Automotive Light Vehicle Level 3. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 478. ISBN 978-1449697853.
4. Dinçer, İbrahim; Rosen, Marc A. (2007). EXERGY: Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 444. ISBN 9780080531359. OCLC 228148217.
5. Jazar, Reza N. (2017). Vehicle Dynamics: Theory and Application (3. ed.). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. p. 957. ISBN 9783319534411. OCLC 988750637.
6. Collinson, R.P.G. (2013). Introduction to Avionics Systems (2. ed.). Boston: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 16. ISBN 9781441974662. OCLC 861706692.
7. Potter, Merle C; Wiggert, David C; Ramadan, Bassem H. (2016). Mechanics of Fluids, SI Edition (5. ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 722. ISBN 978-1305887701.
8. Das, Braja M.; Kassimali, Aslam; Sami, Sedat (2010). Mechanics for Engineers: Statics. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Publishing. p. 556. ISBN 9781604270297. OCLC 419827343.
9. Wright, Gus (2015). Fundamentals of medium/heavy duty diesel engines. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 1349. ISBN 9781284067057. OCLC 927104266.
10. Klein HA. (2011). The Science of Measurement: A Historical Survey. Dover Publications. p. 695. ISBN 978-0486258393.
11. Heijungs R. (2005). "On the Use of Units in LCA". The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 10 (3): 174. Bibcode:2005IJLCA..10..173H. doi:10.1065/lca2005.02.199. S2CID 110961104.
12. Cardarelli F. (2004). Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. Transl. by MJ Shields. (3rd revised ed.). Springer. p. 217. ISBN 978-1852336820.
13. Dresner S. (1974). Units of Measurement: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Units Both Scientific and Popular and the Quantities They Measure. Harvey Miller and Medcalf. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-85602-036-0.
14. Unicode Consortium (2019). "The Unicode Standard 12.0 – CJK Compatibility ❰ Range: 3300—33FF ❱" (PDF). Unicode.org. Retrieved May 24, 2019.

External links

• Official BIPM definition of the metre
• Official BIPM definition of the second