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Find your Speed with a Speedometer

The purpose of this site is to provide a fast, easy and convenient way to determine how fast you are traveling at any given moment. Unlike other sites which are focused on calculating speed by inputting data manually, this site uses GPS data from your mobile device to automatically determine your speed. Think of this site as a mobile web-based speedometer. It's easier, faster and more convenient than other sites and apps.

How Does a Speedometer Work?

A speedometer is a device that measures the 'instantaneous' speed of a vehicle. What is instantaneous speed? It is the speed of an object at a particular moment in time. So when you get an instantaneous speedometer reading, for example 60 miles an hour, you are being told how many miles you would travel if you continued at the same speed consistently for one hour. Travelling at a consistent pace is nearly impossible as many variables such as traffic, weather, stop signs, traffic lights and a host of other factors create an ebb and flow in your speed. So your instantaneous speed can change from moment to moment.

In a typical car the speedometer works using magnets encased in a wire coil (much like an electric guitar pickup). This acts as a sensor which is placed in proximity to a gear on the transmission. When the car is in motion, the gear spins. The motion of the gear interrupts the magnetic field on the sensor, which produces a reading that is interpreted by a computer chip and displays as an instantaneous speed on your vehicle.

Thanks to modern technology this site doesn't need to use magnets or gears to give an extremely accurate instantaneous speed reading. Using the GPS that's built into your iPhone or Android, "How fast am I going?" swiftly analyzes the changes in your location and calculates your approximate speed with a simple computation derived from dividing distance traveled by a unit of time. Because smartphones use GPS data for a plethora of functions they are perfectly suited to be speedometers.

GPS is an acronym for Global Positioning System. Using a global network of satellites that transmit radio signals in medium earth orbit, GPS provides positioning and navigation coordinates. The satellites emit signals to receivers. GPS coordinates are calculated by a simple mathematical equation that computes the time between when a signal is sent and when it is received.

Unlike a vehicle with a built in speedometer that depends on physical components in motion, calculating speed using the GPS in your phone can be achieved on foot, in a car, on a bicycle or any other mode of transportation you can think of.

Laptops and Desktop computers don't typically have GPS installed like a phone would, but you can still access this site without a phone.

How is Speed Calculated?

What we refer to as speed is determined by a calculation of distance and time. To generate a calculation for the average speed, you’d divide total time by total distance. Units include kilometers per house, miles per hour, meters per second and feet per second. This site allows you to choose between miles per hour, kilometers per hour and knots (nautical miles).

If you were to calculate your speed after the fact you could determine the distance you traveled (for example, the distance between your house and your favorite restaurants). Let’s say the distance is 10 miles. Then you’d need the time it takes to get to that restaurant. Let’s say you go there on a Friday night during rush hour and it takes you an hour and a half (1.5 hours). You divide 10 (miles) by 1.5 (hours). This equals an average pace of 6.667 miles per hour. This doesn’t mean you traveled at precisely this pace for the entire time, but this is your average speed.

The instantaneous speed reading you get from this site is calculated in a similar way, but instead of over the course of an hour, your GPS determines how far you’ve traveled in one second. That data is then multiplied and extracted to give you your instantaneous speed reading. This instantaneous speed changes throughout the course of your trip.

Find your Heading

In addition to speed, the internal technology found in smartphones can also sense direction with the use of a built-in magnetic field sensor, also known as a magnetometer. This built in magnet can communicate with the phone and yield readings for true north and magnetic north. The magnetometer functions as a compass and works in tandem with GPS to help provide you with real time directions in apps like Waze and Google Maps. We calculate your heading by finding the direction you are travelling in over time via GPS.

Measurements

We provide instantaneous speed data in miles per hour, the imperial measuring system for users in the United States, Myanmar and Libya.

Every other country in the world, including Turkey, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Nigeria, China, Japan, and a host of others use the metric system. For those users we have a kilometers per hour function.

For those who are at sea or traveling in a boat you can even measure your distance in knots!

How to Graph your Speed

As the website gathers speed readings, we display a graph showing the change in your speed over time. You can click the reset button at any time to clear this graph and the average speed calculation and restart from 0.

Other Ways to Measure Speed?

Many devices exist which measure speed via GPS but cost a fortune. There are also many expensive apps one can download which do the same thing this website does. The only difference is that how fast am i going.org is free for all. You won't need to carry around a bulky speedometer, you can simply use your smartphone!

How accurate are GPS speedometers?

You may think that the manual speedometer in your vehicle is more accurate than a GPS speedometer, but this is actually incorrect. GPS speedometers are in fact MORE accurate on average than vehicle speedometers, assuming there is a clear view of the sky.

What can a Speedometer be used for?

Speedometers have many uses. One of the most common uses is for drivers to ensure that they are not going faster than the speed limit. Many people think the use of speedometers ends there, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Athletes as well as exercise enthusiasts rely on speedometers to accurately gauge the pace of their cycling, running or jogging sessions. As one begins to track their speed, they try to push the limit and increase their speed day by day. Speedometers can also be used to estimate how long it will take to travel from one point to another.

The History of Speed Measurement

Before GPS technology, humans used a wide variety of tools to attempt to measure speed and distance. Romans marked the wheels of their chariots in order to tabulate the number of revolutions the wheel made in a given trip. This was used to estimate average speed as well as the distance traveled. Eleventh Century Chinese inventors invented a device that involved a gear and an arm that would hit a drum at certain intervals. Hearing the sound of the drum indicated that the vehicle had traveled a specific distance. Measuring the time between drum hits gave measurements of average speed.

Ever heard of the measurement unit called a "knot?" It's an aquatic measurement to determine how fast boats are traveling. The term originates in an invention called a chip log. This was essentially a series of knots strung together at regular intervals that would steadily be let out of a ship. The number of knots let out in a given period of time determined speed.

In 1901 the Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout was released. It is remarkable for being the first commercial vehicle equipped with a mechanical speedometer. In almost no time at all, Cadillac and Overland released vehicles with built in speedometers and before long every vehicle on the market had one. The mechanical speedometer of 1901 remained the ubiquitous standard in most vehicles until the 1980s.

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