Orders of magnitude (speed)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various speed levels between 1.3×10−9 m/s and 3×108 m/s.
| Factor | Value (m/s) | Value (km/h) | Item |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-9 | 1.3×10-9 | 4.68×10-9 | Average rate of the Moon receding from the Earth. |
| 0.3×10-9 to 3×10-9 | 1×10-9 to 1×10-8 | Typical relative speed of continental drift | |
| 4.8×10-9 | 1.7×10-8 | Hair growth. | |
| 10-3 | 0.013 | 0.0468 | Speed of a Garden snail [1]. |
| 10-1 | 0.28 | 1 | 1 km/hour |
| 0.447 | 1.609 | 1mph | |
| 100 | 1 | 3.6 | 1 m/second |
| 1–1.5 | 3.6–5.4 | Average walking speed. | |
| 101 | 10.25 | 36.89 | Average speed of sprinters Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin during their world record 100m sprints. |
| 10.35 | 37.27 | Average speed of sprinter Michael Johnson during his world record 200m sprint. | |
| 5–25 | 18–90 | Speed of propagation for unmyelinated sensory neurons. | |
| 25 | 90 | Peak speed of a galloping horse. | |
| 30 | 108 | Typical speed of car (road), Cheetah—fastest of all terrestrial animals, Sailfish—fastest Fish. Speed of go-fast boat | |
| 36 | 130 | Land speed record for a human powered vehicle. | |
| 40 | 144 | Typical speed of a train. | |
| 90 | 320 | Typical speed of a high-speed train, a diving Peregrine Falcon—fastest bird. | |
| 97.2 | 350 | Maximum speed of an Enzo Ferrari | |
| 102 | 103 | 370 | Speed of super torpedo VA-111 Shkval |
| 105.5 | 379.8 | Maximum speed of a Ferrari F50 GT1 | |
| 113.3 | 407.4 | Maximum speed of a Bugatti Veyron (fastest production car in the world). | |
| 120 | 432 | Speed of propagation for mammalian motor neurons. | |
| 130 | 468 | Wind speed of a tornado. | |
| 150.6 | 539 | Top speed of a internal combustion powered NHRA Top Fuel Dragster | |
| 152.7 | 550 | Speed of Transrapid. | |
| 161 | 580 | Speed of JR-Maglev in 2003. | |
| 331.5 | 1,193.4 | Speed of sound in air at sea level and 0°C. | |
| 344.66 | 1,240.77 | Max speed reached by the jet-propelled car ThrustSSC in 1997—Land speed record. [2] | |
| 428 | 1,540.8 | Max speed of Bell X-1. | |
| 464 | 1,670 | Speed of Earth's rotation at the equator. | |
| 603 | 2,170.8 | Speed of the Concorde airliner. | |
| 975 | 3,510 | Muzzle velocity of M16 rifle. | |
| 981 | 3,532 | SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest aircraft driven by a mechanical jet engine | |
| 103 | 2,000 | 7,200 | Estimated speed of a thermal neutron |
| 2,019 | 7,268.4 | Speed of the North American X-15 rocket plane. | |
| 3,111 | 11,199.6 | Speed of the X-43 rocket/scramjet plane. | |
| 7,777 | 28,000 | Propagation of the explosion in a detonating cord, typical speed of a satellite and the space Shuttle in low Earth orbit. | |
| 104 | 11,082 | 39,895 | Speed of Apollo 10—High speed record for manned vehicle. |
| 12,900 | 46,440 | Re-entry speed of return capsule for Stardust space probe—Fastest re-entry speed for man-made object. | |
| 16,210 | 58,356 | Escape speed from Earth by NASA New Horizons spacecraft—Fastest escape velocity. | |
| 29,800 | 107,280 | Speed of the Earth in orbit around the Sun. | |
| 70,220 | 252,792 | Speed of the Helios 2 solar probe—Fastest man-made object. | |
| Faster | 200,000 | 700,000 | Orbital speed of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy. |
| 450,000 | 1,600,000 | Typical speed of a particle of the solar wind, relative to the Sun. | |
| 1,000,000 | 3,600,000 | Typical speed of a Moreton wave across the surface of the sun Sun. | |
| 10,000,000 | 36,000,000 | Typical speed of a fast neutron. | |
| 30,000,000 | 100,000,000 | Typical speed of an electron in a cathode ray tube. | |
| 124,000,000 | 447,000,000 | Speed of light in a diamond (Refractive index 2.417). | |
| 200,000,000 | 720,000,000 | Speed of a signal in a cable. | |
| 299,792,458 | 1,079,252,848.8 | Speed of light (or electromagnetic radiation) in vacuum (see the Speed of light). |
| 0.00275 m/s | world record speed of the fastest snail in the Congham, UK World snail racing championships. |
| 0.080 m/s | the top speed of a sloth (= 8.0 cm/s) |
| 1 m/s | a typical human walking speed; below a speed of about 2 m/s, it is more efficient to walk than to run, but above that speed, it is more efficient to run the speed of signals (action potentials) traveling along axons in the human cortex |
| 28 m/s | a car travelling at 60 miles per hour (mi/h or mph) or 100 kilometres per hour (km/h); also the speed a cheetah can maintain |
| 120 m/s | the maximum speed of signals (action potentials) travelling along myelinated axons in the spinal cord |
| 336 m/s | the speed of sound in the Black Rock Desert when the land speed record was set in 1997 |
| 341 m/s | the current land speed record, which was set by ThrustSSC in 1997. This was supersonic (Mach 1.016) in the Black Rock Desert at the time, but might not have been supersonic in other places. |
| 343 m/s | the approximate speed of sound under standard conditions, which varies according to air temperature |
| 559 m/s | the average speed of Concorde's record Atlantic crossing (1996) |
| 1000 m/s | the speed of a typical rifle bullet about the top speed of a sub-orbital spacecraft. |
| 1400 m/s | the speed of the Space Shuttle when the solid rocket boosters separate. |
| 4500 m/s | A typical value for the specific impulse of current rockets is 4.5 km/s. |
| 8000 m/s | the speed of the Space Shuttle at main engine shutdown (just before it enters orbit). |
| 299792458 m/s | the speed of light (exact value by definition of the metre) |
| 3 mph | Walking speed |
| 15 mph | Bicycling speed |
| 26 mph | Top speed of a running human. (11.62 m/s) |
| 30 mph | Residential speed limit Top speed of a running cat, or dog |
| 50–60 mph | Speed limit on a major road Top speed of an antelope |
| 70 mph | Highway or motorway speed Top speed of a cheetah |
| 103 mph | Top speed (as of 2006) of a pitcher's fastball in baseball |
| 180 mph | High-speed train |
| 250–260 mph | Top speed of high performance supercars such as the Bugatti Veyron or the Koenigsegg CCX |
| 625 mph | Airliner cruising speed |
| 761 mph | The approximate speed of sound (at sea level) |
| 763 mph | Current world land speed record |
| 16,250 mph | Re-entry speed of a space shuttle |
| 25,200 mph | Earth's escape velocity |
| 670,616,629 mph | Speed of light |
| 5 km/h | Walking speed |
| 20 km/h | Easy bicycling speed |
| 44 km/h | Top speed of a running human. (Asafa Powell's maximum speed in 100m sprint) |
| 50 km/h | Residential speed limit Top speed of a running cat, or dog |
| 80–90 km/h | Speed limit on a major road Top speed of an antelope |
| 100–120 km/h | Highway or motorway speed Top speed of a cheetah |
| 300 km/h | High-speed train |
| 400–420 km/h | Top speed of high performance supercars such as the Bugatti Veyron or the Koenigsegg CCX |
| 1,000 km/h | Airliner cruising speed |
| 1,200 km/h | The approximate speed of sound (at sea level) |
| 1,228 km/h | Current world land speed record |
| 26,000 km/h | Re-entry speed of the space shuttle |
| 40,320 km/h | Earth's escape velocity |
| 1,079,252,848.8 km/h | Speed of light (exact) |
