Reaction distance calculator
This reaction distance calculator multiplies driving speed by driver reaction time to find how far a vehicle travels before braking even starts.
Run — free
In road-safety and physics teaching, total stopping distance splits into two parts: reaction (thinking) distance at constant speed while the driver perceives a hazard and moves the foot to the pedal, then braking distance once deceleration begins. Given a non-negative speed v and a non-negative reaction time t_r, the closed form is simply d equals v times t_r. With speed in metres per second and time in seconds, the answer is in metres. Negative speed or reaction time is rejected rather than silently flipped, so a bad spreadsheet cell cannot become a nonsense positive distance. The engine is pure deterministic arithmetic: no network calls, no sampling, and no date-dependent shortcuts. Use it free in the browser for theory tests, driver-education worksheets, and design checks, or call the API at $0.002 per successful request when you need reproducible reaction-distance fixtures in CI, tutoring software, or teaching demos that must not invent unit conversions by hand.
How to use it
Enter your values in the form above. The tool checks them before calculating and shows the result on the same page.
Check your inputs
Use the labels and units shown next to each field. If something is missing or outside the allowed range, the page points to the field to fix.
Use it again or automate it
Use the browser tool for individual checks and the API when you need the same capability in an automated workflow.
What you can do with it
Get an answer now
Enter one set of values and see the result without building a spreadsheet or script.
Compare scenarios
Change one value at a time and rerun the calculation to understand what affects the result.
Automate repeated work
Use the API when the same calculation needs to run inside your product or workflow.
FAQ
How do I use this capability?
Complete the fields above and run it on this page. The form highlights anything that needs attention.
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/mech/reaction-distance \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"speed":13.89,"reaction_time":1.5}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/mech/reaction-distance", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"speed": 13.89,
"reaction_time": 1.5
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/mech/reaction-distance",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"speed": 13.89,
"reaction_time": 1.5
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/mech/reaction-distance", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"speed":13.89,"reaction_time":1.5}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"speed":13.89,"reaction_time":1.5}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/mech/reaction-distance", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"speed": 13.89,
"reaction_time": 1.5
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "mech.reaction_distance",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |