Metre per second squared
SI derived unit of acceleration
The metre per second squared or metre per square second is the unit of acceleration in the International System of Units (SI). As a derived unit, it is composed from the SI base units of length, the metre, and of time, the second. Its symbol is written in several forms as m/s2, m·s−2 or m s−2, m/s2, or less commonly, as (m/s)/s.
As acceleration, the unit is interpreted physically as change in velocity or speed per time interval, i.e. metre per second per second and is treated as a vector quantity.
01Example
When an object experiences a constant acceleration of one metre per second squared (1 m/s2) from a state of rest, it achieves the speed of 5 m/s after 5 seconds and 10 m/s after 10 seconds. The average acceleration a can be calculated by dividing the speed v (m/s) by the time t (s), so the average acceleration in the first example would be calculated:
.
03Unicode character
The "metre per second squared" symbol is encoded by Unicode at code point U+33A8 ㎨ SQUARE M OVER S SQUARED. This is for compatibility with East Asian encodings and not intended to be used in new documents.
04Conversions
| Base value | (Gal, or cm/s2) | (ft/s2) | (m/s2) | (standard gravity, g0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Gal, or cm/s2 | 1 | 0.0328084 | 0.01 | 1.01972×10−3 |
| 1 ft/s2 | 30.4800 | 1 | 0.304800 | 0.0310810 |
| 1 m/s2 | 100 | 1/0.3048 ≈ 3.28084 | 1 | 0.101972 |
| 1 g0 | 980.665 | 32.1740 | 9.80665 | 1 |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Metre per second squared”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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