this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 70 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Time derivatives!

  • Rate of change in position is called velocity
  • Rate of change in velocity is called acceleration
  • Rate of change in acceleration is called jerk
  • Rate of change in jerk is called snap
  • Rate of change in snap is called crackle
  • Rate of change in crackle is called pop
[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And if I recall correctly

  • Rate of change in pop is called lock
  • Rate of change in lock is called drop
[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 19 points 1 month ago (6 children)

When the fuck could those possibly be useful? 😆🙃

Not sure about anything past crackle, but minimum snap trajectory is widely used in efficient path planning for quadcopters.

[–] antrosapien@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can't even comprehend what something beyond jerk means in reality or how to even produce it by physical means

[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well these are higher order derivatives, so they do have physical meaning but the latter ones are increasingly abstract and subtle from our normal earthly perspective.

If you think of a stable and perfectly circular orbit, that's a steady and constant acceleration. Then if you thrust to make it elliptical, you're changing the acceleration which can be measured as jerk. But then if that thrust itself is variable, you can measure its changes as snap. And then of course the rate of how much you change that is crackle, and so on.

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If I was working with those concepts, I'd just start using numbers.

Like, acceleration is v2, jerk is v3, and so on.

[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

These are n th order mathematical derivatives so I'm pretty sure physicists do something very similar to that whenever n matters.

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

IIRC the James Webb had/has max snap, crackle and pop tolerances. Not sure about these two.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago

Getting them just right is important for driverless cars learning to brake in a way that feels comfortable to humans

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

In aerodynamics I guess

[–] tallricefarmer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

They aren't useful. It is just scientists memeing. Any research that involves anything past jerk would be esoteric.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This explains the sounds when I move to get up, these days.

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Is it snap? You might have to slow down your rate of jerk

[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Jitter is a technical term for latency variations between Internet packets over time.

High jitter is bad for VoIP and online gaming and potentially streaming if the jitter is caused by packet loss and retransmits.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

None of those, but I think a series of irregular jerks could be considered jitter.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

So trump, elon and hegseth form a jitter?

[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I only know jitter as irregularity in data flow (e.g. network packets).

Jerk is sometimes called jolt though. Both terms seem fitting to me. Supposedly in roller coaster design, having too much jerk/jolt can be quite unpleasant for riders. Which kind of makes sense, if the acceleration varies too wildly I could see that making me sick.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I only know jitter from electronics as well, but it could be applied in mechanics as well. Iirc, jitter is the irregularities in the intervals in a periodic signal, like data transfer. But jitter will be present in anything with a period, it doesn't have to be digital signal. A jerk is a single action, so there is no period and there can be no jitter. A series of jerks could have a seemingly regular period, but when measured more accurately, the intervals between jerks will have small variances: jitter. Hence why imo a series of irregular jerks could be considered jittery.

Noone ever uses it that way though and I'm not even sure that I phrased it correctly, but because of the word "jerk" I find it a mildly fun play on words.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Wait, what. 🤩