[selecsosi]

I always loved that the derivative of the heavyside operator is equivalent to the dirac delta operator. The idea of impulse and how to apply that to a system is such a unique and useful unlock in E&M and has such a nice analog of connecting the circuit.

One of those things that made it click for me that math truly is defined rules of operations over definitions and could be constructed as to be useful for us, and not just a handed down pure concept. We need to model this very specific thing, here's an operator for it.

[LeftHandPath]

In the latter part of high school, and in my early years in college as a computer engineer, I found physics and the philosophy of it really interesting. I remember the first time, in 9th grade, that our teacher showed us how to predict the bounce-height of a ball using some basic algebra. I was immediately in love with physics, and it was the first time that I realized math could be fun.

In my senior year, AP Physics C: E&M would become one of my favorite courses of my entire scholastic career (largely thanks to my teacher). While Calc 3 wasn't required for the AP test, he introduced the concepts so that he could properly walk us through the history of the field from the perspective of its founders, up to and concluding with Maxwell's equations. We read a lot of the original papers that introduced certain operators and equations, including works from Newton, Leibniz, Heaviside, Maxwell, Einstein, and Dirac. Ironically, I failed the AP exam (2/5) but had a very easy time with Calc III, linear algebra, and diff eq in college thanks to that course.

I really miss the feeling of wonder and astonishment I had when I was first exposed to these concepts -- it's been long enough that my memory of them is fuzzy now, but I don't get the same satisfaction from re-reading them.