Topic summary
Dirac delta
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Dirac delta function.
Motivation and overview
The graph of the Dirac delta is usually thought of as following the whole -axis and the positive -axis. The Dirac delta is used to model a tall narrow spike function (an impulse), and other similar abstractions such as a point charge or point mass. For example, to calculate the dynamics of a billiard ball being struck, one can approximate the force of the impact by a Dirac delta. In doing so, one can simplify the equations and calculate the motion of the ball by only considering the total impulse of the collision.
