How to Calculate MPH

Calculating speed in miles per hour is a fairly simple exercise.

Instructions

1. Determine the distance traveled. If you are traveling on an interstate, you can use the mile markers to know when you've traveled exactly one mile.

2. Determine the time traveled during that distance. If you are using mile markers, use a stopwatch to measure how many seconds it took to travel one mile.

3. Put the time into hours. If the car traveled for 60 seconds, then it traveled 0.0167 hours.

4. Put the distance into miles. In the example we're using, the distance is already in miles. In your case, however, the distance may be in kilometers or feet.

5. Divide the time by the distance. In our example, the car traveled an average of 0.0167/1.0 miles per hour---or 60 mph.

Tips & Warnings

• Converting distance into miles and time into hours can be the most difficult part of this process. However, the Internet offers many ways to do this quickly and easily. A good website for converting measurements is MegaConverter (see Resources for link). Simply choose the type of measurement (e.g. length), then enter the known measurement and units (e.g. 3 furlongs). Then, enter the units to which you want to convert (e.g. miles) and the website will give you the new measurement (e.g. 3 furlongs = 0.375 miles).

Resources

• MegaConverter website link