Mach to Miles Per Hour (Ma to mph)
1 Mach equals 761.2159986 miles per hour (rounded).
How to convert Mach to miles per hour
To convert Mach to miles per hour, multiply the number of Mach by 761.2159986. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply miles per hour by 0.001313687576 (rounded).
miles per hour = Mach × 761.2159986
Example: 10 Mach = 7,612.159986 miles per hour.
Approximate value. Standards for the Mach varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.
About these units
Mach (Ma)
The speed of sound at sea level in standard conditions (15 °C): about 340.294 m/s or 1,225 km/h. The speed of sound varies with temperature and altitude.
Ernst Mach, the Austrian physicist and philosopher born in Moravia in 1838, never defined a unit of speed, yet the ratio carries his name. In 1887 he and Peter Salcher presented a paper on photographing processes in air caused by projectiles, including a shadowgraph of the bow shock around a supersonic bullet fired from a Werndl carbine. The ratio of flow speed to the local speed of sound was later named for him.
Mach is therefore a dimensionless number, not a fixed speed, and because the speed of sound depends on temperature, so does Mach 1. It is about 340 m/s (1,225 km/h) in dry air at 15 °C at sea level, 343 m/s at 20 °C, and about 295 m/s above 11 kilometers where the air is cold. Flight is called subsonic below 0.8, transonic from 0.8 to 1.2, supersonic from 1.2 to 5 and hypersonic from 5 to 10. On 14 October 1947 Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 to Mach 1.06, reported as 361 m/s.
1 Mach = 340.294 meters per second (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Mach number; Wikipedia: Ernst Mach; Wikipedia: Speed of sound
Mile Per Hour (mph)
Exactly 0.44704 m/s. The unit for road speeds in the US, UK and a few other countries.
Early British motoring law is the best window into this unit. The 1861 Locomotive Act set a limit of 10 mph for light locomotives. The 1865 Red Flag Act cut it to 4 mph in the country and 2 mph in towns, with a person walking ahead with a flag. The Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896 raised it to 14 mph, and the Motor Car Act of 1903 to 20 mph. In 1931 all limits for cars were abolished, and 30 mph in built-up areas returned in 1935.
The mile per hour combines the mile, set at 5,280 feet in Elizabeth I's reign, with the hour, and it equals exactly 0.44704 m/s or 1.609344 km/h. The United Kingdom and United States use it on roads, along with several smaller countries, mostly territories or former territories of those two, and the US, Canada and Ireland use it for rail. Sports such as cricket, tennis and baseball quote ball speeds in it. Aviation and shipping prefer knots, about 0.869 of one mph each.
1 mile per hour = 0.44704 meters per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Miles per hour; Wikipedia: Speed limits in the United Kingdom; Wikipedia: Mile
Related conversions
- Miles per hour to Mach (reverse)
- Mach to meters per second
- Mach to kilometers per hour
- Mach to knots
- Mach to feet per second
- Mach to speed of light
- Meters per second to miles per hour
- Kilometers per hour to miles per hour
- Knots to miles per hour
- Feet per second to miles per hour
- Speed of light to miles per hour
- Centimeters per second to miles per hour
- Millimeters per second to miles per hour
- Kilometers per second to miles per hour
- Kilometers per minute to miles per hour
- Meters per minute to miles per hour
- Inches per second to miles per hour
- Feet per minute to miles per hour
See all speed units.