What Is Foot per Minute (ft/min)?
Foot per minute is a unit that measures speed. It tells you how many feet something moves in one minute. If an object travels 50 feet in one minute, its speed is 50 ft per min.
This unit is useful when you want to measure slow or steady motion, such as a person walking up stairs or the speed of a machine part that does not move very fast.
Definition
One foot per minute is the speed of an object that moves exactly one foot in one minute.
In math form:
1 ft per min equals distance of 1 foot divided by time of 1 minute.
Because 1 foot is about 0.3048 meters and 1 minute is 60 seconds, we can also write:
- 1 ft per min is about 0.00508 meters per second
So when you know a speed in ft per min, you can change it to other speed units like meters per second or kilometers per hour.
History / Origin
The unit foot per minute comes from two older units, the foot for length and the minute for time.
The foot has been used for thousands of years. Long ago, people used the length of a human foot as a rough way to measure distance. Over time, the foot was made exact and became part of the English and later the United States customary system of units.
The minute is a time unit that comes from dividing an hour into 60 equal parts. This idea was used by ancient astronomers and later became common in clocks and daily life.
When people began to measure how fast things move, they combined length and time units. For engineers and builders who already used feet and minutes, foot per minute became a natural and easy speed unit.
Symbol & Abbreviation
The standard short way to write foot per minute is:
- ft per min
- ft/min
Other forms you might see, but less often, include:
- ft min, when the slash is left out but the meaning is still per minute
- feet per minute, written in full words in sentences
All of these mean the same speed unit. The most clear and common version in technical writing is ft/min.
Current Use Around the World
Foot per minute is not an official SI unit, but it is still used in many fields, especially in countries that use feet, such as the United States.
Common uses include:
- Building and construction to describe the speed of elevators, escalators and moving walkways
- Heating and cooling systems to show air flow speed in ducts and vents
- Factories and workshops to measure the speed of conveyor belts or cutting tools across a surface
- Safety rules for stairs, ramps and ladders where the normal walking speed can be described in ft per min
In many other countries, people more often use meters per second or kilometers per hour, but they can easily convert to or from foot per minute when they work with international data or equipment made in the United States.
Example Conversions
Here are some useful conversion facts for foot per minute:
- 1 ft per min is about 0.00508 m per s
- 1 ft per min is about 0.018288 km per h
- 1 ft per min is about 0.011364 miles per h
- 1 ft per min is about 0.01667 ft per s
Example 1. Change 100 ft per min to meters per second.
- 100 ft per min multiplied by 0.00508 m per s for each ft per min equals 0.508 m per s
Example 2. Change 300 ft per min to kilometers per hour.
- 300 ft per min multiplied by 0.018288 km per h for each ft per min is about 5.4864 km per h
Example 3. Change 600 ft per min to miles per hour.
- 600 ft per min multiplied by 0.011364 miles per h for each ft per min is about 6.82 miles per h
Example 4. Change 2 meters per second to ft per min.
- 1 m per s is about 196.85 ft per min
- So 2 m per s is about 393.7 ft per min
Related Units
Foot per minute is one of many speed units. Other common ones include:
- Meter per second (m per s) the main SI speed unit, often used in science and engineering
- Kilometer per hour (km per h) used for car speeds and road signs in most countries
- Mile per hour (mi per h or mph) used for road speeds in the United States and a few other countries
- Foot per second (ft per s) another speed unit based on feet, often used for faster motions like the speed of an object in sports or physics problems
- Knot (kn) used in ships and aircraft, where 1 knot is one nautical mile per hour
You can change between these units using conversion factors. For example:
- 1 ft per min is about 0.01667 ft per s
- 1 ft per s is 60 ft per min
- 1 m per s is about 196.85 ft per min
- 1 mph is about 88 ft per s, which is about 5280 ft per min
FAQs
What does foot per minute measure?
Foot per minute measures speed. It tells you how many feet an object travels during one minute. The higher the number, the faster the object moves.
Is foot per minute an SI unit?
No. Foot per minute is not an SI unit. The SI unit for speed is meter per second. Foot per minute belongs to the United States customary and Imperial style of units.
Where is foot per minute used most often?
Foot per minute is common in the United States in fields like construction, building design, heating and cooling systems, and factory equipment, where distances are already measured in feet.
How do I quickly change ft per min to m per s?
To change ft per min to m per s, multiply by 0.00508. For a rough estimate, you can multiply by 0.005 and you will be close to the exact answer.
How do I quickly change ft per min to mph?
To change ft per min to mph, multiply by 0.011364. As a simple rule of thumb, you can say 100 ft per min is a little above 1 mph.
Is foot per minute good for very high speeds?
Foot per minute is not very handy for very high speeds, such as jets or rockets, because the numbers become very large. For those cases, units like m per s, km per h or mph are easier to use.
Can I use feet per minute in school science problems?
You can, but most school science and physics problems use SI units, like meters and seconds. If your data is in ft per min, you can convert to m per s first, then solve the problem.
What is the difference between ft per min and ft per s?
Both measure speed with feet for distance, but they use different time units. Ft per min uses minutes, ft per s uses seconds. One ft per s is equal to 60 ft per min.
Why do elevators often show speed in ft per min?
Elevators in buildings that use feet for height often list speed in ft per min because it matches the way floors and building heights are measured, so it is easy for engineers to work with.
