How do you convert miles per hour squared to meters per second squared?

Answer 1

There are a couple of pieces of information you'll need first. Here they are:

-- 1 mile = 1,609.344 meters

-- 1 hour = 3,600 seconds

Now, take your miles-per-hour number, and multiply it by ' 1 ' a couple of times.

(Remember that a fraction with the same thing on the top and bottom is equal to ' 1 '.)

(X miles/hour2 ) x (1,609.344 meters/mile) x (1 hour/3,600 seconds)2 = 0.00012418 X meters/sec2

Massage this result for a bit, and you discover that if you have enough fuel aboard

your rocket ship to keep pumping along at the acceleration of "1 G", then you're

feeling pretty comfortable inside, even though at the end of the hour, you've just

hit 78,974 mph and you're still gaining.

Why, at that rate of acceleration, 10% of the speed of light is only 35.4 days away !