On this day in physics: 09 January 1942 Happy Birthday to Vladimir Steklov, "Steklov's primary scientific contribution is in the area of orthogonal functional sets. He introduced a class of closed orthogonal sets, developed asymptotic Liouville–Steklov method for orthogonal polynomials, proved theorems on generalized Fourier series, and developed an approximation technique later named Steklov function. He also worked on hydrodynamics and the theory of elasticity." (Source).
Jerk is the rate of change of acceleration, or how fast the change of speed is changing. Consider how you might feel sitting in the passenger seat of a car when someone steps on the gas versus lightly pressing the pedal. This is the difference between high and low jerk. It can be described mathematically as j(t), or a'(t), or v''(t), or x'''(t). Each of these mean the exactly same thing, which is that jerk is the third derivative of position, second derivative of velocity, and first derivative of acceleration.
Very interesting inference from wikipedia: "Because of involving third derivatives, in mathematics differential equations of the form
are called jerk equations. It has been shown that a jerk equation, which is equivalent to a system of three first order, ordinary, non-linear differential equations, is in a certain sense the minimal setting for solutions showing chaotic behaviour. This motivates mathematical interest in jerk systems. Systems involving a fourth or higher derivative are accordingly called hyperjerk systems."
As jerk is the third derivative with respect to time, its units are length per second per second per second, or length per second cubed.
Killer Resource: Astronomy Pic of the Day. NASA's picture of the day.
Keywords: Position, Kinematics, Acceleration, Physics, Podcast, Derivative, Jerk
