I have been reading Newtonian mechanic but I got confuse in defining the unit of acceleration that "Why is the unit of acceleration $m/s^2$"?
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1$\begingroup$ What is your confusion? Do you think it should be something else? Do you understand why the unit of velocity is m/s? $\endgroup$– G. SmithMar 23, 2021 at 5:53
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2 Answers
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- Acceleration = Change in velocity/time
- SI unit of velocity = $m/s$
- SI unit of time = $s$
- Hence, acceleration = $(m/s)/s = m/s^2$
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Because acceleration is the change in velocity with respect to time. Just like when you define velocity's unit, you use the fact that it is the change in distance with respect to time ($v=dx/dt$). For the acceleration this would be $a=dv/dt$, which implies $(m/s)/s=m/s^2$ is the units of acceleration.
