How many feet per second do you have to be traveling to be going 60 mph?

Answer

You thought fractions would never be good for anything!

Forget the numbers and concentrate on the units:

60 miles
--------
1 hour

What would you multiply this by to cancel the hours?

60 miles hours miles
-------- x ----- = -----
1 hour sec sec

What is hours/second? There are 3600 seconds in 1 hour so
hours/second = 1 hour/3600 seconds which means:

60 miles 1 hour 60 miles
-------- x -------- = --------
1 hour 3600 sec 3600 sec

Now, what would you multiply miles/sec by to get feet/sec?

60 miles feet feet
-------- x ---- = ----
3600 sec mile sec

What is feet/mile? There are 5280 feet in 1 mile so
feet/mile = 5280 feet/1 mile which means:

60 miles 5280 feet 60 x 5280 feet
-------- x --------- = --------------
3600 sec 1 mile 3600 sec

60 x 5280 = 316800
-----------
3600

then dived the bottom into the top and you get your answer.

This works for any conversion. You just multiply the fractions that
are appropriate and you end up with the answer.

Sixty miles per hour works out at 88 feet per second.

Answer:

This question seems more like math homework then about motorcycle safety...

First answer by Crazywowow. Last edit by Eslcity. Contributor trust: 68 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 24 [recommend question]