Derivatives With Respect To Time
Position, velocity and acceleration form a natural sequence. Position can be seen as the zeroth time derivative of position, velocity is the first time derivative of position, and acceleration is the second time derivative of position.
The scientific understanding of space and time is that there does not exist such a thing as measuring an object's position with respect to inertial space, and no such thing exists as measuring an object's velocity with respect to inertial space. It is the third in the sequence, acceleration with respect to the background, that is the first to be physically manifest.
Read more about this topic: Inertial Space
Famous quotes containing the words respect and/or time:
“There are of course people who are more important than others in that they have more importance in the world but this is not essential and it ceases to be. I have no sense of difference in this respect because every human being comprises the combination form.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“It is the time we have now, and all our wasted time sinks into the sea and is swallowed up without a trace. The past is dust and ashes, and this incommensurably wide way leads to the pragmatic and kinetic future.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)