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Acceleration Conversion Calculator

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How to Convert Units of Acceleration

Conversions are performed by using a conversion factor. By knowing the conversion factor, converting between units can become a simple multiplication problem:

S * C = E

Where S is our starting value, C is our conversion factor, and E is our end converted result.

To simply convert from any unit into meter per second squared, m/s2, for example, from foot per minute per second, 50 ft/(min·s), just multiply by the conversion value in the right column in the table below.

50 ft/(min·s) * 0.00508 [ (m/s2) / (ft/(min·s)) ] = 0.254 m/s2

To convert from m/s2 into units in the left column divide by the value in the right column or, multiply by the reciprocal, 1/x.

0.254 m/s2 / 0.00508 [ (m/s2) / (ft/(min·s)) ] = 50 ft/(min·s)

To convert among any units in the left column, say from A to B, you can multiply by the factor for A to convert A into m/s2 then divide by the factor for B to convert out of m/s2.  Or, you can find the single factor you need by dividing the A factor by the B factor.

For example, to convert from foot per minute per second, ft/(min·s), to mile per hour per second, mi/(h·s), you would multiply by 0.00508 then divide by 0.44704.  Or, multiply by 0.00508/0.44704 = 0.01136364. So, to convert directly from ft/(min·s) to mi/(h·s) you multiply by 0.01136364.

To understand how to also convert the units follow this example. Say you want to convert from ft/(min·s) to m/s2; you want to convert the foot to meter and the minute to second.  Since you can multiply anything by 1 and still retain the original value, but in different units, set it up so that ft and min will cancel out leaving you with m/s/s or m/(s·s) or m/s2.

Since:
1 m = 3.28084 ft, 1 m / 3.28084 ft = 1
1 min = 60 s, 1 min / 60 s = 1

We can write the conversion as:
1 ft/(min·s) = 1 ft/(min·s) * (1 m / 3.28084 ft) * (1 min / 60 s) = 0.00508 m/s2

And we now have our factor for conversion from ft/(min·s) to m/s2 since 1 * 0.00508 = 0.00508.

Knowing that 1 ft/(min·s) = 0.00508 m/s2 we can now find the conversion factor for converting back.  Dividing both sides of the equation by 0.00508 we get about 196.8504 ft/(min·s) = 1 m/s2.  So, the conversion factor to multiply by to convert from m/s2 to ft/(min·s) is about 196.8504.

Units, symbols and conversion values
used in this acceleration calculator
To Convert from
Unit		 Unit
Symbol		 and Convert to
( m/s2 or m/(s·s) )		 Multiply by
( m/s 2 / Unit )
centimeter per second squared cm/s2 meter per second squared 0.01
foot per hour per second ft/(h·s) meter per second squared 8.46667E-05
foot per minute per second ft/(min·s) meter per second squared 0.00508
foot per second squared ft/s2 meter per second squared 0.3048
galileo Gal meter per second squared 0.01
gravity (standard) gn meter per second squared 9.80665
inch per hour per second in/(h·s) meter per second squared 7.05556E-06
inch per minute per second in/(min·s) meter per second squared 4.23333E-04
inch per second squared in/s2 meter per second squared 0.0254
meter per second squared m/s2 meter per second squared 1
knot per second kn/s meter per second squared 0.5144444
mile per hour per second mi/(h·s) meter per second squared 0.44704
mile per minute per second mi/(min·s) meter per second squared 26.8244
mile per second squared mi/s2 meter per second squared 1609.344

References/ Further Reading

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - The NIST Guide for the use of the International System of Units - Appendix B, subsections B.8 Factors for Units Listed Alphabetically and B.9 Factors for units listed by kind of quantity or field of science.

Lide, David R., Daniel (Editor-in-Chief). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 89th Edition New York, NY: CRC Press, p. 1-28, 2008.

Wikipedia contributors. "Conversion of units" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, last visited 26 Jun. 2011.

Dr Math - "Acceleration Formula and Squared Units" accessed June, 21 2011 at http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/67762.html