Neither are acceleration and the magnitude of acceleration the same. Acceleration is a vector - it has a direction just as velocity does. Here’s the definition I just copied from Google.
Acceleration: the rate of change of velocity per unit of time.
And here’s how you write that in math: a=∆v/∆t
prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In case you aren’t joking, I believe the relevant statement is that acceleration and “a change in velocity over time” are the same thing.
If you imagine driving a car forward in a straight line, pressing the gas will make you accelerate (velocity becomes more forward). Pressing the brake will also make you accelerate (velocity becomes less forward). Turning the steering wheel will also make you accelerate (velocity points more to the left/more to the right).
While I’m at it, you can do physics computations in a rotating frame of reference, but it produces some fictious forces, and gets really wacky quickly. An easy example is that anything far enough away from the axis of rotation is moving faster than the speed of light.