Orders of magnitude (speed)

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.

List of orders of magnitude for speed

List of orders of magnitude for speed

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 (approx. 38 mm/year).
	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.
10−6	1.52×10−6	5.4×10−6	Speed of a cellular vesicle propelled by a motor protein.
10−2	0.013	0.0468	Speed of a Garden snail .
10−1	0.28	1	1 km/hour.
	0.447	1.6093	1 mph.
100	1	3.6	1 m/second.
	1–1.5	3.6–5.4	Average walking speed.
	2.39	8.53	World record time 50m freestyle swim (20.94 seconds)
	5.72	20.42	World record time marathon (2h03m59s)
101	11.80	42.48	Top speed of Donovan Bailey and Maurice Greene 1997 World Championship 100 meter sprint (Top speed ~42.5 km/h).
	11.1	40	Typical speed of car (city road).
	14	50	Typical speed of road-race cyclist.
	16.7	60	Typical speed of thoroughbred racehorse.
	5–25	18–90	Speed of propagation for unmyelinated sensory neurons.
	30	108	Typical speed of car (major 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 peak speed of a local service train (or intercity on lower standard tracks).
	90	320	Typical speed of a modern high-speed train (e.g. latest generation of production TGV), a diving Peregrine Falcon—fastest bird.
	98.6	355	Maximum speed of the 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 the Bugatti Veyron (currently the second fastest production car in the world).
	114.52	417.5	Maximum speed of the SSC Ultimate Aero TT (currently the fastest production car in the world).
	120	432	Speed of propagation for mammalian motor neurons.
	130	468	Wind speed of a powerful tornado.
	150.6	539	Top speed of an internal combustion powered NHRA Top Fuel Dragster.
	152.7	550	Speed of Transrapid.
	157	575	Speed of experimental test TGV in 2007.
	161	580	Speed of JR-Maglev in 2003.
	250	900	Typical cruising speed of a modern jet airliner, e.g. an Airbus A380.
	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.
	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	1,500	5,400	Speed of sound in water.
	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.
	11,200	40,320	Escape velocity from Earth.
	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.
105	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.
	552,000	1,990,000	Speed of the Milky Way, relative to the cosmic microwave background.
	617,700	2,224,000	Escape velocity from the surface of the Sun.
106	1,000,000	3,600,000	Typical speed of a Moreton wave across the surface of the Sun.
106	1,610,000	5,800,000	Speed of hypervelocity star PSR B2224+65, which currently seems to be leaving the Milky Way.
	107	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.
108	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).

Comparison of speeds in mph and km/h

Comparison of speeds in mph and km/h

Value (mph)	Value (km/h)	Item
3 mph	5 km/h	Walking speed
12-15 mph	20-25 km/h	Comfortable bicycling speed.
18–31 mph	30-50 km/h	Typical residential speed limit. Top speed of a running cat, or dog.
45–62 mph	72–100 km/h	Speed limit on a major road. Top speed of an antelope.
55-81 mph	88–130 km/h	Highway or motorway speed.
103 mph	166 km/h	Top speed (as of 2006) of a baseball pitcher's fastball.
128 mph	206 km/h	The normal launch speed of the world's fastest roller coaster, Kingda Ka.
190 mph	300 km/h	Typical top running speed of High-speed train.
256.15 mph	412.23 km/h	Top speed of the world's fastest production car (SSC Ultimate Aero).
560 mph	900 km/h	Jet airliner cruising speed.
761 mph	1,225 km/h	The speed of sound on sea level in standard atmosphere (15 °C & 1 atm).
763 mph	1,228 km/h	Current world land speed record.
6,000 mph	9,600 km/h	Speed of wind on exoplanet HD 189733b.
16,250 mph	26,000 km/h	Re-entry speed of a space shuttle.
24,759 mph	40,320 km/h	Earth's escape velocity at the equator.
670,616,628.6 mph	1,079,252,848.8 km/h	Speed of light.

Example speeds in m/s

Some examples of speeds in m/s

Value (m/s)	Item
0.00275 m/s	World record speed of the fastest snail in the Congham, UK .
0.080 m/s	The top speed of a sloth (= 8.0 cm/s).
1.2 m/s	A typical human walking speed (2.7 mph or 4.3 km/h); 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.
2 m/s	Maximum allowed wind speed in athletics competition for meet records to be set. Common in the sprints, jumping, and some of the throwing events.
32 m/s	Oft-quoted top speed of cheetah, the fastest land mammal (~110-120 km/h).
89 m/s	Speed of Peregrine falcon in a dive. Also the 320 km/h or 200 mph Supercar limit: A parameter sometimes used in defining a supercar [1].
120 m/s	The maximum speed of signals (action potentials) traveling along myelinated axons in the spinal cord.
320 m/s	The speed of a typical .22 LR bullet.
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 the Concorde's Atlantic crossing (1996, based on 1250 mph).
1,000 m/s	The average top speed of a sub-orbital spacecraft.
1,400 m/s	The speed of the Space Shuttle when the solid rocket boosters separate.
4,500 m/s	A typical value for the specific impulse of current rockets is 4.5 km/s.
8,000 m/s	The speed of the Space Shuttle at main engine shutdown just before it enters orbit.
17,000 m/s	The approximate speed of the Voyager 1 probe relative to the sun, when it exited the Solar System.
100,000,000 m/s	The escape velocity of a neutron star.
299,792,458 m/s	The speed of light (exact value by definition of the metre).

See also

• Typical projectile speeds - also showing the corresponding kinetic energy per unit mass
• Neutron temperature