What is centimetre per second?

Centimetre per second is a unit of speed used in low-velocity applications such as biological locomotion studies, microfluidics research, and slow-moving mechanical systems.

Real-world uses

Centimetres per second is used in the CGS system for fluid flow rates, sedimentation velocities in geology, and blood flow measurements in medical Doppler ultrasound. Glacier movement and tectonic plate motion are sometimes expressed in cm/s or cm/year.

History

Centimetres per second was the standard velocity unit in the CGS (centimetre-gram-second) system, widely used in physics until the mid-20th century. While SI uses m/s, cm/s persists in certain scientific fields, particularly fluid mechanics and geophysics.

Common mistakes

Confusing cm/s with m/s by forgetting the factor-of-100 difference. Also, assuming cm/s is too small for practical use—blood flow in major arteries is typically 10–40 cm/s, which is a very practical range.

What is mile per minute?

Mile per minute is a unit of speed equal to 60 miles per hour. It is occasionally used in motorsport, aviation briefings, and quick calculations for high-speed travel in imperial measurement systems.

Real-world uses

Miles per minute is occasionally used in aviation for expressing high speeds in a more intuitive way than mph for American audiences. An airliner cruising at about 575 mph is traveling roughly 9.6 miles per minute, making distance-to-destination calculations easier.

History

Miles per minute has never been widely adopted as a formal unit but emerged informally in American aviation contexts where expressing high speeds in mph yields very large numbers. It provides a more intuitive sense of how quickly distance is covered.

Common mistakes

Confusing miles per minute with miles per hour—1 mi/min = 60 mph. This is a speed unit rarely seen in everyday use, so people may misinterpret the scale of the numbers involved.

When is this conversion used?

Converting between centimetre per second and mile per minute is common when working across metric and imperial systems, such as international trade, travel between countries with different measurement standards, or following instructions from a different region.

Worked examples

1 centimetre per second = 0.00037282 mile per minute

1 mile per minute = 26.8224 metre per second

How to convert centimetre per second to mile per minute

To convert centimetre per second to mile per minute, multiply the value by 0.00037282.

To convert mile per minute back to centimetre per second, multiply by 2,682.24.

Measurement standards

The SI unit of speed is metres per second (m/s), a derived unit requiring no independent definition. The knot is defined as exactly one nautical mile (1,852 metres) per hour and is sanctioned for maritime and aeronautical navigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Did you know?

The fastest human-made object is the Parker Solar Probe, which reached 635,266 km/h (about 176 km/s) in 2024 during a close pass of the Sun — fast enough to travel from New York to Tokyo in under a minute.

Quick reference: centimetre per second to mile per minute

centimetre per second	mile per minute
0.1	0.00003728
0.5	0.00018641
1	0.00037282
2	0.00074565
5	0.00186411
10	0.00372823
25	0.00932057
50	0.01864114
100	0.03728227
250	0.09320568
500	0.18641136
1,000	0.37282272

Common values

	centimetre per second	mile per minute
Walking speed	140 centimetre per second	0.05219518 mile per minute
City speed limit	1,390 centimetre per second	0.51822357 mile per minute
Highway driving	3,130 centimetre per second	1.1669351 mile per minute
Commercial aircraft	25,000 centimetre per second	9.32056788 mile per minute
Speed of sound (sea level)	34,029 centimetre per second	12.68678418 mile per minute

Available Speed units

More centimetre per second conversions

Assumption: Mach uses an approximate sea-level reference (about 340.29 m/s).