SOLUTION: In school we are doing double unit conversions and i dont understand how to do them. For example, 72 miles/hour=_________meters/seconds. I tried doing 72mi 5280ft --- -

Question 158650: In school we are doing double unit conversions and i dont understand how to do them. For example, 72 miles/hour=_________meters/seconds. I tried doing
72mi 5280ft
--- ------- = 380160ft.
1 x 1 mi
i converted that to meters by multiplying it by .3048(i have a conversion sheet) and got 321868.8. To me that doesn't seem right because that seems like too big of a number to be meters per second. Please help me asap!
~Lauryn

Answer by nerdybill(7384) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
First, let's convert the denominator of "hour" to "seconds":
72 miles 1 hour 1 min
--------- x ------ x ------
hour 60 min 60 sec
.
Note: notice how the like-units cancel leaving:
72 miles
---------
36 sec
.
Now, let's convert the numerator of "miles" to "meters":
72 mile 5280 ft
-------- x --------- x ------------
36 sec 1 mile 1 ft
.
Again, notice how the units cancel leaving:
(72*5280*0.3048) meters0.3048 meter
-----------------------
36 sec
Resulting in:
115872.768 meters
------------------
36 sec
Finally, we get:
3218.688 meters/sec

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