Question

When you have a distance it's a meter. An area is a meter squared. A volume is a meter cubed. So when you have equations with position, velocity, and acceleration, what do the higher powers of time represent? I know what a second is, but what is a second squared mean on its own when it's not m/s^2 ?

Answer 1

Oh lol! I had the exact same question a while ago, look! http://openstudy.com/study#/updates/4fcc4910e4b0c6963ad7634b, any how, in my own words with acceleration and such meters per second squared is the time of the thing accelerating to THAT time.

Answer 2

Oh, and staying to that question a second square on its own would be just an exponent, exponential time only applies to M/s2.

Answer 3

delete the apostrophe.

Answer 4

Hope that helped, IM not completely shure although, so dont trust me!

Answer 5

Sure, I know that acceleration is a change in velocity, but I'm not sure I understand your answer, explain it differently or something, it kind of makes sense.

Answer 6

Ok!

Answer 7

I guess I'm interested in understanding what a second squared is when it is in the numerator and alone. Just a pure, second squared.

Answer 8

Well

Answer 9

From my knowledge of science a all, in the matter world I guess a second squared would be time duplicating itself.

Answer 10

So any time something accelerates, time duplicates? Haha.

Answer 11

I guess you must have misunderstood, thats the only thing I can think of other THEN acceleration.

Answer 12

Ahh ok. Maybe I'm trying to make sense of something that really has no meaning.

Answer 13

Well, that can't be right though...

Answer 14

I really doubt it, Like I said, dont trust me!

Answer 15

I'm looking back at understanding concepts like hertz and wavenumbers, just their simple units meanings since they represent inverse meters and seconds. It's just confusing. I guess I'm curious as to why units are so confusing to comprehend!

Answer 16

e.g. acceleration is m/s^2. It's non-intuitive, but it helps to think about the definition of acceleration as the instantaneous rate of change in velocity (m/s) over time. I recommend lecture 2, mit's 8.01 physics... around 26:00.

Answer 17

I know what acceleration is, that really isn't the issue here. I am just trying to understand if a second squared means anything on its own or not. It's kind of a more complicated question.

Answer 18

There is no physical significance to a square second.

Answer 19

There are many terms in formulas that themselves don't mean anything.
e.g. Force = kg*m/s^2, what's a kilogram-meter?
Or to get square seconds in the numerator, how about \[mass = \frac{force}{acceleration}\]
\[[1kg = 1\frac{(N)(s^2)}{m} \rightarrow 1s^2 = 1\frac{(kg)(m)}{N^2}\]
So there's a definition of what a square second is, but I don't think it clears things up any. :-D