What is foot per second?

Foot per second is a unit of speed in imperial and US customary systems. It is used in ballistics, sports science, and engineering calculations that rely on US customary units.

Real-world uses

Feet per second is used in ballistics for bullet muzzle velocities (e.g., 2,800 fps for a rifle round), aerospace engineering for aircraft approach speeds, and fluid dynamics in American engineering contexts. Elevator speeds are sometimes specified in ft/s.

History

Feet per second has been used in English-language engineering since the 18th century, particularly in artillery and ballistics. It remains the standard velocity unit in American firearms and aerospace industries despite the broader shift toward metric units.

Common mistakes

Confusing feet per second with miles per hour. 1 ft/s ≈ 0.682 mph, so they are quite different. Also, using fps as an abbreviation for both "feet per second" and "frames per second" creates ambiguity in technical documents.

What is metre per second?

Metre per second is the SI unit of speed. It is used in physics, engineering, and scientific contexts to express velocity, and serves as the reference unit for all speed calculations in this converter.

Real-world uses

Metres per second is the SI unit of speed used in physics, engineering, and scientific research. Wind speed in meteorological data, projectile velocities, and fluid flow rates are expressed in m/s. The speed of sound at sea level is approximately 343 m/s.

History

As an SI derived unit, metres per second became the standard scientific speed unit with the adoption of the SI system in 1960. It naturally combines the base units of length (metre) and time (second).

Common mistakes

Forgetting to convert from km/h—divide by 3.6, not by 3.0 or 60. Also, confusing velocity (vector with direction) with speed (scalar magnitude), both expressed in m/s but with different physical meanings.

When is this conversion used?

Converting between foot per second and metre per second 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 foot per second = 0.3048 metre per second

1 metre per second = 1 metre per second

How to convert foot per second to metre per second

To convert foot per second to metre per second, multiply the value by 0.3048.

To convert metre per second back to foot per second, multiply by 3.2808399.

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: foot per second to metre per second

foot per second	metre per second
0.1	0.03048
0.5	0.1524
1	0.3048
2	0.6096
5	1.524
10	3.048
25	7.62
50	15.24
100	30.48
250	76.2
500	152.4
1,000	304.8

Common values

	foot per second	metre per second
Walking speed	4.59317585 foot per second	1.4 metre per second
City speed limit	45.60367454 foot per second	13.9 metre per second
Highway driving	102.69028871 foot per second	31.3 metre per second
Commercial aircraft	820.20997375 foot per second	250 metre per second
Speed of sound (sea level)	1,116.43700787 foot per second	340.29 metre per second

Available Speed units

More foot per second conversions

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