Signals and systems: a consistent, unified approach

Abstract

Abstr act -This paper addr esses two problems associated with the traditional appr ach to teaching a junior level course in signals and systems. First, students are exp ectedto develop facility with a variety of transforms and we have observed that this overwhelms many, reducing them to simply "memorizing equations." Second, the usual treatment of Dir ac'sdelta as a function not only leads to serious contr adictions with the standard calculus, but also leaves intractable schisms surr ounding the transforms of important harmonic functions. W e present a unified and consistent approach design& to ameliorate these problems using abstract linear algebr a and distribution theory. The appr oachwas implemented for four semesters and exit surveys were conducted to assess pedago gical effetiveness.