Knots to kilometres per hour – and kilometres per hour to knots
1 kn = 1.852 km/h
All units in this category
- 0.51444444m/s
- 1.852km/h
- 1.1507794mph
- 1kn
- 1.6878099ft/s
Formula
Multiply the value in knots by 1.852 to get kilometres per hour.km/h = kn × 1.852
Multiply the value in kilometres per hour by 0.5399568 to get knots.kn = km/h × 0.5399568
How to convert knots to kilometres per hour
Type a value in the field above and the result is calculated instantly. Use the arrow button to swap direction, or pick other units from the lists.
Doing it in your head
A rough conversion for when the calculator is not to hand. The error comes last, and it holds in both directions at that order of magnitude.
- Kilometres per hour to knots: × 3 ÷ 5 − 10%. That gives 0.54 instead of 0.539957, an error of 0.01%.
Knots to kilometres per hour – common values
| Knots (kn) | Kilometres per hour (km/h) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.852 |
| 5 | 9.26 |
| 10 | 18.52 |
| 20 | 37.04 |
| 30 | 55.56 |
| 50 | 92.6 |
| 70 | 129.64 |
| 90 | 166.68 |
| 100 | 185.2 |
| 120 | 222.24 |
Kilometres per hour to knots – common values
| Kilometres per hour (km/h) | Knots (kn) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.539957 |
| 5 | 2.69978 |
| 10 | 5.39957 |
| 20 | 10.7991 |
| 30 | 16.1987 |
| 50 | 26.9978 |
| 70 | 37.797 |
| 90 | 48.5961 |
| 100 | 53.9957 |
| 120 | 64.7948 |
About the units
Knots. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, and the nautical mile has been fixed at 1,852 metres since 1929. That makes a knot exactly 1.852 kilometres per hour, or 0.514 metres per second. Knots are used in shipping and aviation, and European air traffic rules set a limit of 250 knots below 10,000 feet. The unit is absent from the EU units directive, and there is no internationally agreed symbol for it. “Knots per hour” is wrong: a knot is already a speed.
Kilometres per hour. The kilometre per hour is built from two legal units and is itself legal throughout the EU. One kilometre per hour is one 3.6th of a metre per second. It is the unit on speedometers and speed limits across the union, and Swedish traffic rules set the limits in kilometres per hour, 50 in built-up areas and 70 outside them. A hundred kilometres per hour is just under 28 metres per second and 62 miles per hour. Write km/h, not “kmh” or “kph”.