radian per second
Angular speedexact by definition
The radian per second is the SI coherent unit of angular speed, usually written . It is the form every rotational dynamics equation expects, because and hold only in radians. Its relation to the base units is exact by definition.
Watch out: Angular frequency in rad/s is times the frequency in Hz, so a 60 Hz supply corresponds to 377 rad/s. Both are formally per-second, so a dimensional check will not catch the substitution error.
| 1 | 1 |
About the radian per second
The radian per second is the speed every rotational formula is written in, and a few anchors make its magnitudes readable: a clock's second hand turns at rad/s, a 3,000 rpm motor at 314 rad/s, and a large wind turbine rotor at only 1 to 2 rad/s. That last number explains a common surprise, because over a 50 m blade puts the tip of that slow-looking machine at 80 m/s or more. Power follows the same way: is how the rotational-mechanics solvers on this site turn a nameplate speed and a torque into watts.
One value in this unit is a constant of the planet. The Earth turns at rad/s, and the figure looks slightly wrong if you compute over the 86,400 s day, because the true rotation period is the sidereal day of 86,164 s, the Earth's turn relative to the stars rather than the Sun. That is the ingredient in the Coriolis parameter that weather models and long-range ballistics corrections are built on, and it is why cyclones spin opposite ways in the two hemispheres.
One radian per second in every angular speed unit
| 206,265 | degree per hour (°/h) | |
| 13,751 | revolution per day (rev/d) | |
| 3,437.75 | degree per minute (°/min) | |
| 1,000 | milliradian per second (mrad/s) | |
| 572.958 | revolution per hour (rev/h) | |
| 60 | radian per minute (rad/min) | |
| 57.2958 | degree per second (°/s) | |
| 9.5493 | revolution per minute (rpm) | |
| 1 | radian per second (rad/s)this unit | |
| 0.159155 | revolution per second (rev/s) | |
| 0.0095493 | thousand revolutions per minute (krpm) |