Josie Ford
A jerk and a creep
“Hidden jerk in universal creep and aftershocks” may sound like the name of a Hollywood movie – and maybe some day it will be. But for now, it is exclusively the title chosen by Vikash Pandey at Krea University in India for a mathematical physics write-up that involves earthquakes, avalanches, landslides and bamboo chopsticks. And, indirectly, spaghetti. It was published in Physical Review E. Allan Harvey brought it to Feedback’s attention.
Jerk, as most calculus students are amused to learn, is the technical word for the rate at which acceleration changes. In the haughty language …