What is knot?
A knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.852 km/h. It is the international standard for maritime navigation, aviation, and meteorological wind speed reporting.
Real-world uses
Knots are the universal speed unit in maritime navigation and aviation worldwide, regardless of whether a country uses metric or imperial. Ship speeds, ocean currents, wind speed in aviation weather (METAR) reports, and jet stream velocities are all given in knots.
History
The knot originates from the 17th-century practice of measuring ship speed by throwing a log overboard attached to a rope with knots tied at regular intervals. Sailors counted how many knots paid out in a fixed time (measured by a sandglass).
Common mistakes
Saying "knots per hour"—a knot already means nautical miles per hour, so adding "per hour" is redundant and incorrect. Also, confusing knots with km/h: 1 knot ≈ 1.852 km/h.
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 knot to mile per minute is useful in the speed domain when comparing values across different measurement standards or applying formulas that require a specific unit.
Worked examples
1 knot = 0.01917966 mile per minute
1 mile per minute = 26.8224 metre per second
How to convert knot to mile per minute
To convert knot to mile per minute, multiply the value by 0.01917966.
To convert mile per minute back to knot, multiply by 52.13857452.
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: knot to mile per minute
| knot | mile per minute |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 0.00191797 |
| 0.5 | 0.00958983 |
| 1 | 0.01917966 |
| 2 | 0.03835931 |
| 5 | 0.09589829 |
| 10 | 0.19179657 |
| 25 | 0.47949144 |
| 50 | 0.95898287 |
| 100 | 1.91796575 |
| 250 | 4.79491437 |
| 500 | 9.58982873 |
| 1,000 | 19.17965747 |
Common values
| knot | mile per minute | |
|---|---|---|
| Walking speed | 2.72138229 knot | 0.05219518 mile per minute |
| City speed limit | 27.01943845 knot | 0.51822357 mile per minute |
| Highway driving | 60.84233262 knot | 1.1669351 mile per minute |
| Commercial aircraft | 485.96112315 knot | 9.32056788 mile per minute |
| Speed of sound (sea level) | 661.47084239 knot | 12.68678418 mile per minute |
Available Speed units
More knot conversions
- Convert knot to metre per second
- Convert knot to kilometre per hour
- Convert knot to mile per hour
- Convert knot to foot per second
- Convert knot to metre per minute
- Convert knot to kilometre per second
- Convert knot to mach (approx at sea level)
- Convert knot to centimetre per second
- Convert knot to mile per minute
Assumption: Mach uses an approximate sea-level reference (about 340.29 m/s).