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The air velocity in feet per minute.
American HVAC figures run in the hundreds of fpm across coil, filter and hood faces, and into four figures in duct mains. Check whether the number is a design target or a minimum that must be met on site, because the two round in opposite directions.
Air velocity
8.128 m/s
Converted using an exact defined factor of 0.00508 m/s per ft/min. The factor is exact, so any error in the answer came in with the fpm figure — check it is a velocity and not a CFM.
- Conversion factor applied
- 0.01 m/s per ft/min
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Feet per Minute to Metres per Second Calculator: 8.13 m/s — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Exact and terminating. 1 ft = 0.3048 m exactly and there are 60 s in a minute, so 1 ft/min = 0.3048 ÷ 60 = 0.00508 m/s with no rounding whatsoever — every digit beyond the eight is a zero.
Inputs used
- Air velocity (ft/min)
- 1600
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 0.01 m/s per ft/min
Confidence note: Converted using an exact defined factor of 0.00508 m/s per ft/min. The factor is exact, so any error in the answer came in with the fpm figure — check it is a velocity and not a CFM.
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This result is a specification — 8.128 m/s — not a quantity. Put the thing it sizes into your project: how many, what you call it, and your supplier’s price.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-08-26 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations1
- Exact and terminating. 1 ft = 0.3048 m exactly and there are 60 s in a minute, so 1 ft/min = 0.3048 ÷ 60 = 0.00508 m/s with no rounding whatsoever — every digit beyond the eight is a zero.
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American drawings and balancing reports state velocity in feet per minute, and the number has to come back to metres per second before a metric fan, filter or hood can be selected against it. The arithmetic is trivially exact — one foot per minute is 0.00508 m/s by definition — so the errors are all in reading the source. FPM and CFM look alike on a scruffy drawing and get transcribed for one another; the two differ by the duct's cross-sectional area. And several American figures are minimum requirements rather than design targets: a 100 fpm fume-hood face velocity is 0.508 m/s, not the 0.5 m/s it gets rounded to, and rounding it down fails the commissioning test.