Technically the gas pedal controls the change in acceleration, right?

Technically it controls the amount of air and/or fuel delivered to the engine (in a gas engine, the pedal directly controls airflow; in a diesel engine it directly controls fuel flow)

Increasing speed -> acceleration Decreasing speed -> negative acceleration Changing direction -> Vector acceleration(change in velocity)

Acceleration in physics terms just means a change in velocity. Velocity is speed in a given direction. The steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal all accelerate the vehicle.

Cookie-Chocolate-Bar

Though probably not intended, my head canon is that OP is referring to how often people misspell it.

Petrol. Gas isn't even a gas.

You're applying acceleration to the gear switcher

I think that car has a dead pedal, otherwise that is the fattest clutch pedal I have seen by a longshot.

I am not smart but this is what I get from this meme.

It’s a play on how physics describes acceleration. In physics acceleration isn’t just about speeding up but any change in velocity.

So:

• Gas = Positive acceleration
• brake = negative acceleration
• steering = velocity takes speed and direction, so acceleration.

Acceleration is a change in velocity. When you press the gas pedal or brake, you feel positive or negative acceleration. When you turn the wheel, you feel sideways acceleration.

Another analogy is force: F=ma. You feel a force if you accelerate, brake, or turn the wheel; all three induce acceleration as defined in physics.

I learned something today.

I was taught in my younger days that “homonyms” were words that were spelled the same but pronounced differently, and “homophones” were words that were pronounced the same but spelled differently. “Break” and “brake” would then be homophones.

But it turns out “homonym” is the broader category including “homophones,” “homographs,” and words where both are true (same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings). So homophones are homonyms.

TheMoreYouKnow.gif

P.S. Though Wikipedia says a more technical definition would limit “homonym” to, specifically, the third category, words that are spelled and pronounced the same but with different meanings. They give examples of “stalk” (part of a plant) and “stalk” (follow/harass a person), or “skate” (glide on ice) and “skate” (a type of fish).

P.P.S. This reminds me of the autoantonym (a word that is its own opposite) “cleave,” which can mean “to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly” or “to split or sever (something), especially along a natural line or grain.“ I don’t know if “cleave” is technically a homonym, or if these are simply two definitions for the same word, and I don’t know who would decide that. But it’s still a fun word.