What does the gravity unit #m/s^2# stand for?

1 Answer
Jan 14, 2016

#m/s^2# represents acceleration.

Explanation:

Speed, in metres* per second (#m/s#) is the rate of change of distance, or how much distance (#m#) is covered in a certain time (#s#).

Acceleration is the rate of change of speed (or velocity, if working with vectors), or the change in speed (in #m/s#) every second, or #(m/s)/s#, which is simplified to #m/s^2# or #ms^(-2)#.

Since a falling object accelerates due to the force of gravity, gravity is expressed in terms of that acceleration, which is approximately constant anywhere on the surface of the Earth at 9.8 #m/s^2#.

*I'm in Canada, we spell it "metres" rather than "meters".