Inches Per Second to Meters Per Second (in/s to m/s)

1 inch per second equals 0.0254 meters per second exactly.

1 inch per second = 0.0254 meters per second

How to convert inches per second to meters per second

To convert inches per second to meters per second, multiply the number of inches per second by 0.0254. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply meters per second by 39.37007874 (rounded).

meters per second = inches per second × 0.0254

Example: 10 inches per second = 0.254 meters per second.

About these units

Inch Per Second (in/s)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

Exactly 0.0254 m/s. Used for tape speeds.

Tape recording standardized on inch per second, often written ips. The Compact Cassette, introduced by Philips in August 1963, runs at 1 7/8 ips, which is 4.7625 cm/s, since 1.875 times 2.54 gives that figure. Open-reel machines used a ladder of speeds, each double the one below: 3 3/4 ips (9.525 cm/s), 7 1/2 ips (19.05 cm/s), 15 ips (38.1 cm/s) and 30 ips (76.2 cm/s).

Some dictation machines ran at half the cassette speed, 15/16 ips, or about 2.38 cm/s. The unit rests on the international inch of exactly 25.4 mm, so one inch per second is exactly 0.0254 m/s, and NIST lists the conversion as exact. A cassette moves at about 0.0476 m/s, which is 0.171 km/h.

1 inch per second = 0.0254 meters per second (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Compact Cassette; NIST SP 811 Appendix B.8: conversion factors; Wikipedia: Orders of magnitude (speed)

Meter Per Second (m/s)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI unit of speed. Walking pace is about 1.4 m/s; a sprinter reaches roughly 10 m/s.

Official standing arrived in 1960, when the CGPM established the SI and made the meter per second the unit for speed and velocity. Before that, feet per second, miles per hour and knots were more common, depending on region and trade. One proposal gave 1 m/s its own name, the benz, after Karl Benz, but it was rejected and never caught on, so the unit is still written as a plain ratio of meter to second.

The meter is now defined by the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second, and the second by the vibration of caesium atoms, so the meter per second rests on two physical standards. Exactly 3.6 km/h make 1 m/s, and it equals about 2.2369 mph or 1.9438 knots. For scale, sound travels at about 343 m/s in dry air at 20 °C, and Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 reached about 361 m/s, Mach 1.06, in October 1947. Physics and engineering use the unit almost exclusively.

The meter per second is the reference unit for speed on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Metre per second; NIST: the meter and the SI redefinition; Wikipedia: Sound barrier

Related conversions

See all speed units.