Dirac delta pulse

Summary

A dirac pulse is infinitely narrow. For any other position on the time axis than its exact location, it is zero.
As a consequence, a digital signal is zero, except exactly on the sample instants

One can think of a dirac pulse as a rectangular pulse, that has been “squashed flat”.
The narrower it gets, the higher it grows, while the area is preserved.
Finally, it grows infinitely high, and the area is still unity.

Figure 1: Approximations and dirac delta pulse

A dirac pulse is measured by its area, and the infinite height is of no concern.
An interesting aspect is that it is is infinitesimally narrow.
In other words, it has no length on the time axis, the signal is zero except on the exact location of a pulse.

© Markus Nentwig 2007-2008
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