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Calculus is of vital importance in physics: many physical processes are described by equations involving derivatives, called differential equations. Physics is particularly concerned with the way quantities change and develop over time, and the concept of the " time derivative " — the rate of change over time — is essential for the precise ...
In SI, this slope or derivative is expressed in the units of meters per second per second (/, usually termed "meters per second-squared"). Since the velocity of the object is the derivative of the position graph, the area under the line in the velocity vs. time graph is the displacement of the object. (Velocity is on the y-axis and time on the ...
The higher order derivatives can be applied in physics; for example, while the first derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity, how the position changes as time advances, the second derivative is the object's acceleration, how the velocity changes as time advances.
Snap, [6] or jounce, [2] is the fourth derivative of the position vector with respect to time, or the rate of change of the jerk with respect to time. [4] Equivalently, it is the second derivative of acceleration or the third derivative of velocity, and is defined by any of the following equivalent expressions: = ȷ = = =.
The slope field can be defined for the following type of differential equations ′ = (,), which can be interpreted geometrically as giving the slope of the tangent to the graph of the differential equation's solution (integral curve) at each point (x, y) as a function of the point coordinates.
The second derivative of a function f can be used to determine the concavity of the graph of f. [2] A function whose second derivative is positive is said to be concave up (also referred to as convex), meaning that the tangent line near the point where it touches the function will lie below the graph of the function.
Even higher derivatives are sometimes also used: the third derivative of position with respect to time is known as the jerk. See motion graphs and derivatives. A large number of fundamental equations in physics involve first or second time derivatives of quantities. Many other fundamental quantities in science are time derivatives of one another:
Absement changes as an object remains displaced and stays constant as the object resides at the initial position. It is the first time-integral of the displacement [3] [4] (i.e. absement is the area under a displacement vs. time graph), so the displacement is the rate of change (first time-derivative) of the absement.