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Miles Per Hour
To measure how fast a vehicle is traveling, Americans use miles per hour. Cars, trains and planes are all clocked using this unit of measurement. Even the speed at which animals run is measured in miles per hour. Miles per hour is commonly referred to as "MPH." The speedometers on cars sold in the United States primarily display the car's current speed in MPH. Local speed limits also are posted in miles per hour.
Kilometers Per Hour
Those who use the metric system use kilometers per hour, or "KPH," in the same way that those in America use miles per hour. Most parts of the world outside the United States use KPH. Speedometers on automobiles sold abroad have kilometers per hour as their primary designation instead of the regionally irrelevant MPH. Kilometers per hour, or KPH, is also shown on American speedometers, but it usually is written in smaller numbers underneath the meter's MPH readings.
Reading Miles or Kilometers Per Hour
When reading the speed of a vehicle or another object in either miles per hour or kilometers per hour, the number given is the amount of miles that will be traveled after one hour as long as the speed does not waver. A car traveling 60 miles per hour will have traveled 60 miles after one hour if the car's speed remains constant. A car traveling 60 kilometers per hour will have traveled 60 kilometers after one hour.
Converting MPH to KPH
One mile is roughly equivalent to 1.609344 kilometers, so to convert miles into kilometers, you must multiply the amount of miles by 1.609344. Using this formula, sixty miles is equivalent to approximately 96.56 kilometers. To convert kilometers into miles, divide the amount of kilometers by 1.609344. A 55 MPH speed limit in America translates to approximately 88.5 KPH. A speed limit of 65 MPH is approximately 104.6 when converted into kilometers per hour.