Random jerks fascinate some people, a few of whom, at least, might be captivated by the study “On the Seismic Jerk,” Ramiro Sofronie, Journal of Geological Resource and Engineering, vol. 4, 2017, pp. 147-52. The author reports:
“In the year 1936, only with four years before the strong earthquake that occurred in Romania, on November 10, 1940, the late Professor Aurel A. Beleș (1891-1976), published a paper about the role of jerk in dynamics. Then in 1941, after the earthquake, in his quality of official expert for analyzing the collapse of Carlton Hotel in Bucharest, the same professor published two extended papers together in a book entitled The Earthquake and the Buildings. In that original scientific document an earthquake is defined as a succession of random jerks…”