3 ms·

> step function As mentioned in the article he wasn't well accepted by academics of the time. A college math professor of mine remarked that the acceptance of

> step function As mentioned in the article he wasn't well accepted by academics of the time. A college math professor of mine remarked that the acceptance of naming the step function after him was intentionally demeaning to the rest of his work.

hilbert42 5y ago
Yeah, right. ;-) But ultimately those who demeaned Heaviside weren't that successful given that most of his electrical nomenclature has actually stood the test of time and is still used today. It's worth quoting Wiki's list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside): "Electromagnetic terms Heaviside coined the following terms of art in electromagnetic theory: • admittance (reciprocal of impedance) (December 1887); • elastance (reciprocal of permittance, reciprocal of capacitance) (1886); • conductance (real part of admittance, reciprocal of resistance) (September 1885); • electret for the electric analogue of a permanent magnet, or, in other words, any substance that exhibits a quasi-permanent electric polarization (e.g. ferroelectric); • impedance (July 1886); • inductance (February 1886); • permeability (September 1885); • permittance (now called capacitance) and permittivity (June 1887); • reluctance (May 1888)." Methinks that's more than anyone else has done!
- madengr 5y ago
  Interesting. I’ve been doing RF engineering for 25 years and have never read of permittence and elastance. We usually call it inductive and capacitive susceptance. But yeah, Heaviside did a ton of stuff; I read that aforementioned biography.
- ISO-morphism 5y ago
  Indeed, and perhaps I should have expanded on the context surrounding that remark. The professor considered Heaviside to be underappreciated and used the story as a lesson on academic and establishment fallibility.
tigerlily 5y ago
So what did the college professor think of the Dirac delta function?

hilbert42 5y ago

Yeah, right. ;-) But ultimately those who demeaned Heaviside weren't that successful given that most of his electrical nomenclature has actually stood the test of time and is still used today. It's worth quoting Wiki's list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside): "Electromagnetic terms Heaviside coined the following terms of art in electromagnetic theory: • admittance (reciprocal of impedance) (December 1887); • elastance (reciprocal of permittance, reciprocal of capacitance) (1886); • conductance (real part of admittance, reciprocal of resistance) (September 1885); • electret for the electric analogue of a permanent magnet, or, in other words, any substance that exhibits a quasi-permanent electric polarization (e.g. ferroelectric); • impedance (July 1886); • inductance (February 1886); • permeability (September 1885); • permittance (now called capacitance) and permittivity (June 1887); • reluctance (May 1888)." Methinks that's more than anyone else has done!

madengr 5y ago
Interesting. I’ve been doing RF engineering for 25 years and have never read of permittence and elastance. We usually call it inductive and capacitive susceptance. But yeah, Heaviside did a ton of stuff; I read that aforementioned biography.
ISO-morphism 5y ago
Indeed, and perhaps I should have expanded on the context surrounding that remark. The professor considered Heaviside to be underappreciated and used the story as a lesson on academic and establishment fallibility.

tigerlily 5y ago

So what did the college professor think of the Dirac delta function?