Revolutions Per Minute to Gigahertz (rpm to GHz)

1 revolution per minute equals 1.666666667×10⁻¹¹ gigahertz (rounded).

1 revolution per minute = 1.666666667×10⁻¹¹ gigahertz

How to convert revolutions per minute to gigahertz

To convert revolutions per minute to gigahertz, multiply the number of revolutions per minute by 1.666666667×10⁻¹¹. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply gigahertz by 60,000,000,000.

gigahertz = revolutions per minute × 1.666666667×10⁻¹¹

Example: 10 revolutions per minute = 1.666666667×10⁻¹⁰ gigahertz.

About these units

Revolution Per Minute (rpm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One 60th of a hertz. The unit for engine, motor and turntable speeds.

Records gave rpm its fame. The 78 rpm speed was not chosen for a clear engineering reason; Wikipedia says it apparently happened to be the speed of one of the early machines, and the Gramophone Company formally set it as a recording standard in 1912. Columbia unveiled the 33 and a third rpm LP on 21 June 1948, and RCA Victor released the 45 rpm single in February 1949, starting a period called the War of the Speeds.

One rpm equals one sixtieth of a hertz, so a disc at 60 rpm turns at 1 Hz. The SI does not recognise rpm as a unit, preferring hertz or radians per second, and r/min is the usual symbol in standards. Typical examples are a modern car engine idling at about 750 to 900 rpm, consumer hard drives at 7,500 to 10,000 rpm, power-generation turbines at 3,000 or 3,600 rpm, and uranium centrifuges of the Zippe type at 100,000 rpm or more.

1 revolution per minute = 0.01666666667 hertz (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Revolutions per minute; Wikipedia: Phonograph record

Gigahertz (GHz)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One billion hertz. Modern processor clocks and Wi-Fi run at gigahertz frequencies.

On 6 March 2000, AMD demonstrated a processor passing the 1 GHz mark, a few days before Intel shipped 1 GHz systems, according to Wikipedia. After that, clock rates rose more slowly: Intel's 3 GHz Pentium 4 arrived in 2002, and later performance came more from design changes than raw speed, since higher clock rates produce more heat. The highest boost clock on a production processor is listed as 6.2 GHz for the Intel i9-14900KS in 2024.

A gigahertz is a billion hertz, the range known as microwaves. The most familiar example may be the kitchen: consumer microwave ovens typically run at 2.45 GHz, a band that is available for industrial, scientific and medical use worldwide. Percy Spencer of Raytheon discovered the heating effect in 1945 when a radar set melted a candy bar in his pocket, and Raytheon sold the first commercial oven, the Radarange, in 1947.

1 gigahertz = 1,000,000,000 hertz (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Clock rate; Wikipedia: Microwave oven; Wikipedia: Gigahertz

Related conversions

See all frequency units.