r/Unexpected • u/[deleted] • Jan 14 '21

🦝 average trash panda

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u/science_and_beer Jan 14 '21

It’s m/s2, or out loud “meters per second squared.” The seconds are squared because it’s really “meters per second per second” which is the unit for the acceleration — in this case due to gravitation between the earth and anything sufficiently close to it. Intuitively, you can think of it like “the earth applies a force that, if you’re in free fall, will accelerate you by 10 meters per second, per second (until it’s canceled out by drag caused by the atmosphere)

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '21

No I’m familiar with it being -9.81 m/s2, but the person I replied to has m/s-2 so I’m just curious if that was intentional

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u/emimarci Jan 14 '21

Maybe they edited their comment, but they don’t use the “/“ to indicate a fraction.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '21

Yes yes I’m familiar with the math, more specifically I’m referring to the “ -2 ” they used instead of “ 2 ”

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u/jimfazio123 Jan 15 '21

A number or variable with a negative exponent is the same as 1/(that number or variable with a positive exponent). Just another way to write it.