How do you convert miles to seconds?

Answer 1

The first thought would be that the question cannot be answered sensibly. A mile is a measure of distance, with dimensions [L]. A second is a measure of time, with dimensions [T]. The two measure different things and elementary dimensional analysis teaches that you cannot convert between measures with different dimensions such as these without additional information.

However, in the world there are numerous measurements of distance. One measurement uses degrees of latitude and longitude, which divided up the surface of the Earth. A degree is divided up into minutes and seconds, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in a degree.

A degree of latitude is constant everywhere on the globe, being approximately 69 miles, and a minute of latitude is approximately 1.15 miles. That means that a second of latitude is approximately 0.02 miles, or just over 100 feet.

A degree of longitude however varies in size approximately 69 miles at the equator. Because a degree of longitude varies as it moves away from the equator the minutes and seconds of longitude will decrease in size towards the poles.