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From Wikipedia:

In physics, jerk is the rate of change of acceleration; that is, the derivative of acceleration with respect to time, and as such the second derivative of velocity, or the third time derivative of position.

The higher derivatives subsection continues:

In classical mechanics of rigid bodies there are no forces associated with the higher derivatives of the path, nevertheless not only the physiological effects of jerk, but also oscillations and deformation propagation along and in non-ideally rigid bodies, require various techniques for controlling motion to avoid the resulting destructive forces. It is often reported[where?] that NASA in designing the Hubble Telescope not only limited the jerk in their requirement specification, but also the next higher derivative, the jounce.

Question: What were Hubble's jerk and jounce limits? Did JWST have the same?

note: per @ErinAnne's comment jounce is also known as "snap", as discussed in Wikipedia as well as in Don Eyles' book Sunburst and Luminary.

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  • $\begingroup$ Somewhat related: How much jerk do astronauts experience? Is there a safety limit? $\endgroup$ – uhoh Apr 30 '18 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ "Snap, crackle, and pop" as the ongoing derivatives of motion originated in the Instrumentation Lab at MIT while the Apollo software was being written (according to "Sunburst and Luminary" by Eyles). Those are generally the preferred terms in my experience. If not, they've at least got spaceflight heritage :) $\endgroup$ – Erin Anne May 1 '18 at 15:40
  • $\begingroup$ @ErinAnne indeed! I've added a note to the question, thanks for mentioning the book, I haven't read it yet, will look for a copy. $\endgroup$ – uhoh May 1 '18 at 17:51

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