Do acceleration graphs always consist of horizontal lines? What kind of motion would cause a different acceleration graph?

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anonymous · Answer

If you plot acceleration vs time graph, the graph will have horizontal lines if the acceleration is constant. But there are quantities which are derivatives of accelerations w.r.t time... acceleration is the 2nd derivative of displacement. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th derivatives of displacements are jerk, jounce, crackle and pop.. They are therefore 1st, 2nd, 3rd and fourth derivatives of acceleration w.r.t time... The acceleration-time graph will be sloped line, parabolic, 3rd and fourth power graphs.... sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_%28physics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jounce