Time Domain Description
One of the more useful functions in the study of linear systems is the “unit impulse function.” An ideal impulse function is a function that is zero everywhere but at the origin, where it is infinitely high. However, the area of the impulse is finite. This is, at first hard to visualize but we can do so by using the graphs shown below.
Consider first the ramp function shown in the upper left. It is zero for t<0 and one for t>T, and goes linearly from 0 to 1 as time goes from 0 to T. If we let T→0, we get a unit step function, γ(t) (upper right). If we take the derivative of our ramp function (lower left), we get a rectangular pulse with height 1/T (the slope of the line) and width T. This rectangular pulse has area (height·width) of one. If we take the limit as T→0, we get a pulse of infinite height, zero width, but still with an area of one; this is the unit impulse and we represent it by δ(t). Since we can’t show the height of the impulse on our graph, we use the vertical axis to show the area. The unit impulse has area=1, so that is the shown height.