How does the unit used to measure acceleration actually work?

Question

The unit to measure speed is m/s which in a straightforward manner implies that x metres is covered per second however the unit for acceleration is m/s^2 which is kind of making it difficult to understand how it works..

I had this thought in the middle of a physics test and have been pondering ever since. Would be great if someone could eli5.

In: Physics

Answer 1

Imagine you give an alias to the velocity unit. Let’s say a knot is 1 m/s. If a man walk with 5 knots, it means he will make 3.6*5 km in 1 hour, which is 18.

Now he starts with 0 knots, and then accelerates linearity until he reaches 6 knots after 1 minute. What was the median velocity increase? Well, 6/60 equals 0.1 knots / second, which you could replace with ( 0.1 m / s) / s.