# What is the Change in Acceleration Called?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-change-in-acceleration-called/109173>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-change-in-acceleration-called/109173 "2002-05-15T07:53:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-change-in-acceleration-called/109173/21 "2002-05-16T00:56:21Z")

</div>

Putting on my mechanical engineering hat, I gotta agree with jerk. I did not realize “snap, crackle and pop” were unofficial terms.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-change-in-acceleration-called/109173/22 "2002-05-16T04:59:47Z")

</div>

[forum=ATMB]Since a few folks in this thread have asked about how to do Greek characters, you use the symbol font. For instance, if I type  
[**symbol]D[**/symbol]  
I’ll get  
[symbol]D[/symbol].  
[/forum]

**bibliophage** , pickup is the (scalar) time derivitive of (scalar) speed. I think that the use originated in automotive circles, where one might talk about a car having a lot of pickup: If you’re drag racing, you don’t care about a car’s overall acceleration capabilities (which would include turning), you’re just intersted in how long it takes to get up to speed.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-change-in-acceleration-called/109173.md?page=1)