Sometimes, for convenience, the magnitude of a shock is stated as a multiple of the acceleration due to free fall in the Earth's gravity, a quantity with the symbol g having the value 9.80665 m·s-2. Thus a shock of "2g" is equivalent to about 19.6 m·s-2.
The symbol g used above must not be confused with the same symbol g meaning gram, 1/1000th of a kilogram.
A variety of shock absorbers are used to reduce the strength of shocks in machinery.