Science Fair Project Encyclopedia

Metre per second

Metre per second (U.S. spelling: meter per second) is an SI derived unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector), defined by distance in metres divided by time in seconds. The symbol is m/s, or equivalently, m s^-1.

Some examples of speeds in m/s:

0.0055 m/s	world record speed of the fastest snail in the Congham,UK World snail racing championships.
0.080 m/s	the top speed of a sloth (= 8.0 cm/s)
1 m/s	a typical human walking speed; below a speed of about 2 m/s, it is more efficient to walk than to run, but above that speed, it is more efficient to run the speed of signals (action potentials) traveling along axons in the human cortex
28 m/s	a car travelling at 60 miles per hour (mi/h or mph) or 100 kilometres per hour (km/h); also the speed a cheetah can maintain
120 m/s	the maximum speed of signals (action potentials) traveling along myelinated axons in the spinal cord
336 m/s	the speed of sound in the Black Rock desert when the land speed record was set in 1997
341 m/s	the current land speed record, which was was set by ThrustSSC in 1997. This was supersonic (Mach 1.016) in the Black Rock desert at the time, but might not have been supersonic in other places.
343 m/s	the approximate speed of sound under standard conditions, which varies according to air temperature
559 m/s	the average speed of Concorde's record Atlantic crossing (1996)
10³ m/s	the speed of a typical rifle bullet
1400 m/s	the speed of the Space Shuttle when the solid rocket boosters separate.
8000 m/s	the speed of the Space Shuttle at main engine shutdown (just before it enters orbit).
3 × 10⁸ m/s	approximately the speed of light

1 metre per second = 3.2808 feet per second = 2.2369 miles per hour = 3.6 km/h.