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A comment on Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher derivatives (2016). Parent comment

Re:Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher d... by shagie on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @10:11AM (#40728487)
I was thinking more of the instant you shut off engines and disconnect 130,000 kg of mass of stage one.

There is an interesting Δa/Δt while fuel is consumed and mass changes.

There are discontinuities to the graph when engines are shut down and stages decoupled.

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Re:Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher d... by sokoloff on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @12:16PM (#40729669)
That’s a legitimate question: over small enough time periods (as the bolts explode over a non-zero period of time), is it continuous or discontinuous?

Over a macro scale, it’s discontinuous, of course.

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Re:Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher d... by tomek_ycomb on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @02:54PM (#40731312)
It's nature, it's continuous at small enough scales.

But, checkout Zeno's paradox for more on your philosophical questions

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