Kilometer Per Minute (km/min)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One kilometer per minute is 60 km/h.

1 kilometer per minute = 16.66666667 meters per second (approximately).

About the kilometer per minute

Racehorses and greyhounds give this unit a memorable benchmark. Wikipedia lists the top speed of a thoroughbred racehorse or racing greyhound as about 17 m/s, and multiplying by 60 gives 1,020 meters per minute, or 1.02 km/min. A round figure of one kilometer per minute is therefore 60 km/h, a pace such animals roughly reach in a sprint.

One kilometer per minute equals 1,000 m divided by 60 s, or about 16.67 m/s. Its main appeal is mental arithmetic: a vehicle at 60 km/h covers one kilometer every minute, so distances and times can be read off almost directly. The more common road unit, km/h, only replaced the French myriameter per hour during the nineteenth century, with the compound in use in the United States by 1866.

Sources: Wikipedia: Orders of magnitude (speed); Wikipedia: Kilometres per hour

Kilometer Per Minute conversion chart

1 kilometer per minute expressed in every other speed unit:

More Metric (SI) units

• meter per second (speed)
• kilometer per hour (speed)
• centimeter per second (speed)
• millimeter per second (speed)
• meter per minute (speed)
• meter (length)
• kilometer (length)
• centimeter (length)
• millimeter (length)
• micrometer (length)
• nanometer (length)
• picometer (length)
• decimeter (length)
• hectometer (length)
• decameter (length)
• kilogram (weight & mass)

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