# What the heck is measured in m2 / s2?

by johann1301
Tags: m2 s2
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 P: 119 Can somebody tell me what m2 / s2 measures?? A square meter per squared second??
 Sci Advisor PF Gold P: 11,868 The rate of change in the growth of an area?
 P: 1,084 energy per unit mass!
 P: 56 What the heck is measured in m2 / s2? what ever. I ain't even important.
 Mentor P: 22,211 Measured? Nothing. But I suspect the question is really asking about what an energy equation means.
 HW Helper P: 7,030 My guess is that it's the velocity component for 1 Joule of energy, 1 Joule = 1 kg m2 / s 2, or kinetic energy of an object = 1/2 mass v2 (with v2 stated as m2 / s2 ). ... or it could be related to centripetal acceleration, a = v2 / r.
Sci Advisor
HW Helper
P: 6,653
 Quote by russ_watters Measured? Nothing. But I suspect the question is really asking about what an energy equation means.
Well, it could be a measure of energy per unit mass (above post #3): J/kg = Nm/kg = kg m sec^-2 m kg^-1 = m^2/sec^2

AM
P: 1,084
 Quote by Andrew Mason Well, it could be a measure of energy per unit mass: J/kg = Nm/kg = kg m sec^-2 m kg^-1 = m^2/sec^2 AM
 Quote by dacruick energy per unit mass!
mwahahaha
 P: 1 i'm sorry for necrobumping this old tread, but AM is actually right. Using bernoulli's equations you can find out the loss of energy due to friction in joule/kg, which is the same as m2/s2. A joule is the same as a newton times meter, while a newton is the force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kg by 1 meter per second squared. so if you write it out it becomes: $\frac{J}{kg}$ = $\frac{N*m}{kg}$ = $\frac{kg*m*m}{s²*kg}$ =$\frac{m²}{s²}$ so m2/s2 could refer to the loss of energy per kg due to friction. It's used mostly in hydrodynamics and aerodynamics. Probably also in thermodynamics.
HW Helper
P: 7,030
 Quote by johann1301 Can somebody tell me what m2 / s2 measures?? A square meter per squared second?
 Quote by dacruick energy per unit mass
Which would make m^2 / s^2 an optional unit form for potential, such as gravitational potential. For example, for object close enough to earth's surface that gravitational force can be considered constant, then gravitational potential = g h = (9.8 m / s^2) (h m) = 9.8 h m^2 / s^2.

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