XPost: sci.electronics.design   
   From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 23/02/2026 10:28 pm, J. J. Lodder wrote:   
   > Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 23/02/2026 8:38 am, J. J. Lodder wrote:   
   >>> Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 22/02/2026 9:25 pm, J. J. Lodder wrote:   
   >>>>> Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> On 21/02/2026 10:46 pm, J. J. Lodder wrote:   
   >>>>>>> Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> On 21/02/2026 5:52 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>> On 02/20/2026 10:31 AM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>> On 21/02/2026 3:47 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>> On 02/19/2026 11:45 PM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>> On 20/02/2026 10:48 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/19/2026 11:19 AM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 20/02/2026 2:44 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/19/2026 01:45 AM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 19/02/2026 6:13 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/18/2026 11:06 AM, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/17/2026 08:35 PM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 18/02/2026 5:37 am, Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/17/2026 09:47 AM, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ross Finlayson wrote:   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 02/17/2026 03:49 AM, J. J. Lodder wrote:   
      
      
      
   > It is obvious that you have not seen Dirac's original work,   
   > where he introduces the \delta-function.   
      
   Why would I have? I was trained as chemist, at a time when chemists   
   needed to know about quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics   
      
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_mechanics   
      
   Reading Dirac's original paper wasn't part of the course work.   
      
   > He explicitly says there that introducing the \delta-function   
   > as the derivative of the unit step function,   
   > (which he calls the \epsilon-function)   
   > is an alternative and equivalent way of introducing the \delta-function.   
   > He doesn't mention Heaviside by name,   
      
   So he probably didn't know much about his work. Dirac was working at   
   Cambridge at that time, and while Cambridge was very proud of it own   
   mathematicians, it tended to be snooty about non-Cambridge mathematics,   
   and Heaviside wasn't even an academic.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)