Convert kilometers per hour to furlongs per fortnight easily.
1 km÷h x 1,670.245 = 1,670.245 fur/fortnight
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Ever wondered how fast a snail's pace translates into medieval farming terms? Let's explore one of the most delightfully absurd unit conversions in physics: transforming modern kilometers per hour into furlongs per fortnight. While you'll never see this on your car's speedometer, it’s a favorite among educators and trivia enthusiasts for demonstrating unit conversion principles.
Unit definitions
What is a kilometer per hour (km/h)?
Description: The standard metric unit for measuring speed, commonly used in road signs worldwide.
Symbol: km/h
Common uses: Automotive speed limits, weather reports, athletic performance tracking
Definition: Distance of 1 kilometer traveled in one hour (exactly 0.27778 meters per second)
What is a furlong per fortnight?
Description: A whimsical hybrid unit combining medieval distance with Shakespearean timekeeping.
Symbol: fur/fortnight
Common uses: Academic examples, historical comparisons, nerdy humor
Definition: 1 furlong (201.168 meters) traveled over 14 days (1,209,600 seconds)
Conversion formula
The mathematical relationship between these units is:
1 km/h = (1 km ÷ 1 hour) × (8 furlongs ÷ 1.609344 km) × (168 hours ÷ 1 fortnight)
Simplified to:
1 km/h ≈ 1670.245 furlongs/fortnight
Example calculations
- Converting bicycle speed:
15 km/h × 1670.245 = 25,053.68 fur/fortnight
(That's 25k furlongs per fortnight - your bike could theoretically plow through medieval fields at Renaissance fair speeds) - Highway speed conversion:
120 km/h × 1670.245 = 200,429.4 fur/fortnight
(A modern car outpacing 14th-century crop rotation cycles by 200k furlongs every two weeks)
Conversion tables
Kilometers per hour to furlongs per fortnight
| km/h | fur/fortnight |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1,670.25 |
| 5 | 8,351.23 |
| 10 | 16,702.45 |
| 20 | 33,404.90 |
| 50 | 83,512.25 |
| 100 | 167,024.50 |
Furlongs per fortnight to kilometers per hour
| fur/fortnight | km/h |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | 0.5987 |
| 5,000 | 2.9935 |
| 10,000 | 5.9870 |
| 20,000 | 11.974 |
| 50,000 | 29.935 |
| 100,000 | 59.870 |
Historical context and modern quirks
The furlong dates back to Anglo-Saxon England, where it represented the length of a plowed furrow in an acre (literally "furrow long"). Fortnights preserved their importance through Shakespearean literature and British payroll systems. Combining them creates a unit that's both archaic and absurdly specific.
During the 1970s metrication debates, some British traditionalists jokingly proposed furlongs per fortnight as an alternative to SI units. While never serious, it became a staple in physics classrooms for teaching dimensional analysis. The unit gained minor pop culture status when used in a 1989 episode of "The Simpsons' during a chalkboard gag.
Interesting facts
- A human walking speed (5 km/h) equals 8,351 fur/fortnight, faster than medieval message riders
- The term "fortnight" survives strongest in Australian and British English
- 1 fur/fortnight equals 0.0001663 m/s, slower than continental drift
- NASA's Curiosity rover moves at about 90 fur/fortnight on Mars
- The conversion factor 1670.245 contains the digits of Columbus' voyage year (1492) when rearranged
FAQ
It's mainly used for humorous comparisons or to demonstrate unit conversion principles in physics education.
No, it's considered a humorous non-standard unit mixing medieval measurements with modern time.
Our tool calculates to 4 decimal places, precise enough for academic or curiosity-driven purposes.
It's useful for understanding historical texts or creating memorable examples in STEM education.
Absolutely, our converter works bidirectionally with equal precision.