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dotlin's avatar

What's the practical use of snap, crackle and pop?

Asked by dotlin (422points) July 27th, 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crackle_(physics)
I just found out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th derivatives of acceleration are called snap, crackle and pop. I just don’t see what practical use they have could you enlighten me?

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7 Answers

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
Cruiser's avatar

I am a novice in this arena but apparently rate of change of acceleration derivatives are more loosely used, less serious derivatives is snap (symbol s), crackle (symbol c) and pop (symbol p) for the 4th, 5th and 6th derivatives respectively. Higher derivatives do not yet have names because they do not come up very often. Also the sound my back makes getting out of bed!!

The 1st Derivative is the velocity
The 2nd Derivative is the acceleration
The 3rd Derivative is the jolt..
The 4th is… (snap)
The 5th is… (crackle)
The 6th is… (pop)

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
Mariah's avatar

@Cruiser 3rd is jerk, not jolt.

I don’t know that they are particularly “useful;” they probably happen in nature so some physicists with a sense of humor decided to give a name to them. I don’t know, I hope someone with more insight will answer this.

Zyx's avatar

Well, it’s certainly useful in mechanics as you can use the flaws in the laws of nature to increase these properties seperately and receive superpowers.

Cruiser's avatar

@Mariah depends on the physicist who is doing the accelerating….some “sparkies” will use “jolt” and some “mechanics” will use “jerk”.

Mariah's avatar

@Cruiser Well I stand corrected! My apologies. :]

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