How to Convert Feet per Minute to Meters per Second in Excel

Feet per minute (ft/min) and meters per second (m/s) are units of speed or velocity, which measure how fast an object is moving. To convert from one unit to another, we need to use a conversion factor that relates the two units.

One foot is equal to 0.3048 meters, and one minute is equal to 60 seconds. Therefore, one foot per minute is equal to 0.3048/60 meters per second, or 0.00508 m/s. This is the conversion factor that we will use to convert from ft/min to m/s.

Procedures

To convert from ft/min to m/s in Excel, we can use a simple formula that multiplies the value in ft/min by the conversion factor 0.00508. For example, if we have a value of 120 ft/min in cell A1, we can enter the following formula in cell B1 to get the equivalent value in m/s:

=A1*0.00508

This will return 0.6096 m/s in cell B1. We can then copy and paste this formula to other cells that contain values in ft/min to get the corresponding values in m/s.

Alternatively, we can also use the CONVERT function in Excel to convert from ft/min to m/s. The CONVERT function takes three arguments: the value to be converted, the unit of the value, and the unit to convert to. The unit of ft/min is “ftm” and the unit of m/s is “m/s” in Excel. Therefore, we can use the following formula to convert from ft/min to m/s:

=CONVERT(A1,"ftm","m/s")

This will return the same result as the previous formula, 0.6096 m/s in cell B1. We can also copy and paste this formula to other cells that contain values in ft/min to get the corresponding values in m/s.

Explanation

To understand how the conversion from ft/min to m/s works, we can break down the formula into two steps:

1. Convert from feet to meters: To convert from feet to meters, we need to multiply the value in feet by 0.3048, which is the number of meters in one foot. For example, if we have 120 feet, we can multiply it by 0.3048 to get 36.576 meters.
2. Convert from minutes to seconds: To convert from minutes to seconds, we need to divide the value in minutes by 60, which is the number of seconds in one minute. For example, if we have 1 minute, we can divide it by 60 to get 0.01667 seconds.

Combining these two steps, we can convert from ft/min to m/s by multiplying the value in ft/min by 0.3048 and dividing it by 60, or equivalently, multiplying it by 0.3048/60, which is 0.00508. For example, if we have 120 ft/min, we can multiply it by 0.00508 to get 0.6096 m/s.

Example

Suppose we want to compare the speed of two cars, one that travels at 60 miles per hour (mph) and another that travels at 100 kilometers per hour (km/h). To do this, we need to convert both speeds to the same unit, such as m/s.

First, we need to convert from mph to ft/min, since one mile is equal to 5280 feet. To do this, we need to multiply the value in mph by 5280. For example, if we have 60 mph, we can multiply it by 5280 to get 316800 ft/min.

Second, we need to convert from km/h to m/s, since one kilometer is equal to 1000 meters. To do this, we need to divide the value in km/h by 3.6, which is the number of seconds in one hour. For example, if we have 100 km/h, we can divide it by 3.6 to get 27.78 m/s.

Third, we need to convert from ft/min to m/s, using the formula or the function that we learned earlier. For example, if we have 316800 ft/min, we can multiply it by 0.00508 or use the CONVERT function to get 1609.28 m/s.

Finally, we can compare the two speeds in m/s and see which car is faster. In this case, the car that travels at 60 mph is faster than the car that travels at 100 km/h, since 1609.28 m/s is greater than 27.78 m/s.

Excel Table

We can use an Excel table to show the conversion from ft/min to m/s for different values. Here is an example of how the table might look like:

We can see that the values in m/s increase proportionally with the values in ft/min, as expected.

Result of the Scenario

The result of the scenario is that the car that travels at 60 mph is faster than the car that travels at 100 km/h, since 1609.28 m/s is greater than 27.78 m/s.