In physics, "impulse" is a very useful concept describing a force which is applied for a length of time. It is calculated by multiplying force and change in time, and is equal in every way to the resultant change in momentum.

In my physics class, we always wrote impulse as delta-p, because p was the symbol we used for momentum.

I think specific impulse is the same thing i'm describing.

In signal processing and particularly DSP, an impulse is a signal with one non-zero value and the rest of the signal equal to zero. A graph of an impulse would look something like
                   _
                  | |
                  | |
                  | |
                  | |
                  | |
                  | |
                  | |
__________________| |________________________

Where | | is the width of one sample.

Impulses are useful in practical signal processing applications for the purpose of characterizing and modelling a channel. If you pass an impulse through a channel or filter, the output signal will be the impulse response of the channel or filter. The width of the impulse response shows how long it takes for the effects of a signal to pass through the channel.

Comic book superhero created by Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo. Impulse is Bartholomew "Bart" Allen, the grandson of Barry Allen, the second Flash. He was born with the speed force which gives the various Flashes their power. He was born in the future, and his grandmother brought him back in time to allow Wally West and Max Mercury, two speedsters, to help him control his power and avoid rapidly aging and dying. He is a member of the teenage superhero troupe, Young Justice, and currently goes to high school in Manchester, Alabama. DC Comics publishes his regular monthly series.

In a collision of two objects, for an example a foot about to kick a football- the velocity of one or both objects is abruptly changed. It is known, from Newton's laws of motion, that such a change means a force has been applied. The strong but short-duration force associated with a collision is called an impulsive force. Alhtough the gravitational force also acts on the ball, during the collision the impulsvie force is overwhelmingly dominant.

The impulsive force is related to the change in an object's momentum through Newton's second law:

*Bold face denotes the letter as a vector quantity.

F = dp/dt

Multiplying this equation by dt and integrating from some time t1 before the collision to a time t2 after the collision, it is seen that:

∫(t1, t2) F dt = ∫(t1, t2) dp

The right-hand integral is just the change ΔP that occurs during the collision. The integral on the left is known as the impulse, I, associated with the collision. The result then shows that the change in an object's momentum is equal to the impulse.

I = ∫(t1, t2) F dt = Δp

The units of impulse are the same as those of momentum. kg · m/s, or, equivalently, N · s. Since the difinite integral corresponds to the area under a curve, the impulse eqatuion is given geometrically by the area under the force v. time curve. It does not matter whether the force curve includes any nonimpulsive forces that may be present, for that definition of a collision ensures that the change in momentum associated with nonimpulsive forces is negligible during the time of the collision.

Saigon High Chair Pirates: [im]pulse

Originally recorded May 2002 by SHCP.
Album: Discography, 2004, Amoebic Productions
Music: J. Erm
Lyrics: Tom Dissonance

Lyrics

The lust for the purchase set your heart racing
The value on offer got you salivating
The advertising looked so fine
And pleaded, tempted you to buy
Consumer ideal you'll be forever chasing

Whatever you want, you got it
Whatever you need, you got it
At whatever the cost, you got it
Whatever you want, you got it

And you keep all your worries and doubts at bay
By joining in the line to pick and pay
The market answers questions you never knew you had
Keeps your lifeblood flowing day by day

Repeat chorus x3 to end

About [im]pulse

One of the biggest questions is: why the square brackets around the 'im'? From the horse's mouth:
The brackets issue: The music was written before the lyric and originally had a much more rattling, rhythmic beat. The lyrics essentially an extended metaphor between the 'pulse' of the body, the trance of the supermarket, and the joy of the impulse purchase. The brackets were trying to preserve the metaphor which is still present in the lyrics as they were written with the rattling beat in mind. Also, we're really big fans of brackets... I just love punctuation, really.

--Tom Dissonance

It's an ironic look at how buying products has been eroticised, turned into something which is both necessary for individuals day to day existance, brings a false hope of joy which is seldom, if ever fulfilled, of how it attempts to fill the shopper's inner lonelyness with merchandise, how the shopper is urged on by a skilled practitioner of the practical aspects of human psychology.

On the copyright issue

How the fuck can you stake a claim of ownership to intangible patterns of sound?! Duplicate, imitate, replicate, eradicate, masturbate, Mercyful Fate (for non-profit, non-fascistic purposes) at will, shitface. We don't give a crap.

-- Propagandhi sleevenotes, How to Clean Everything, 1993

-- quoted by Tom Dissonance, 2004.

More to the point, Tom's told me I can node it. And upload it onto my university file space, and let all you lucky people hear what it sounds like.

http://www.durham.ac.uk/d.n.mckee/impulse.mp3

And if you're looking for more Saigon High Chair Pirate sounds, try looking for sky_baby on SoulSeek and asking him nicely for a download. Or leave him a /msg and see if you can persuade him to send you a nice shiny CD. Oh, and a special bonus is a available at http://www.amoebic.co.uk/limpulse.jpg ...

Impulse (1974), also released as 'I Love to Kill' and 'Want a Ride, Little Girl?', is mandatory viewing for the true Shatner aficionado. It represents perhaps the pinnacle of the Shatnerian ham style, in a heady and evocative blend of woeful dialogue and ridiculous editing. The final product manages to foreshadow a then-nascent personality cult of Shatner, and is by turns agonising and exhilarating.

The scene is set in black & white, a suburban loungeroom, a wireless broadcasting on the Korean war. Little freckly waif Matt Stone's mother is something of a whore, and he awakes to the sound of a john (to whom only the name 'Sarge' can do justice) shouting in Japanese as he slugs bourbon and waves a katana. After some slovenly banter, he mounts the couch and starts pawing at Matt's ma. Little Matt walks into the room and slurs the demand that Sarge leaves his mother alone; gets belted in the face by Sarge, who starts directing violence and abuse at his mother; and responding to her pleas for help, sticks Sarge in the guts with the sword. Sarge exclaims "crazy... kid..." and sinks to the floor; his mother gasps and mechanically drawls "oh Matt... what have you done"; and little Matt, with a determined expression of trembling fear, sticks the tip of his pinky finger in the corner of his mouth and bites down on it. This pinky-biting becomes something of a motif.

"IMPULSE"

Turkish music blares- pearlescent beads flash- and we are in the dim recesses of a belly-dancing club, looking directly into the face of the man-god, Shatner. Luxuriating in pimply attire, he chews on a monochrome cigarette with gruff delicacy, savouring the backdraft of smoke that curls from the corners of his sly grin. He's a beast of velvet in a long white scarf, and the entire club seems engineered to his exultation. The dancer, a husky athletic beauty in white hotpants and hoop earrings, is dancing just for him, and as she edges closer, he deftly snares her neck with his scarf, and drags her in for a smoky kiss. We are for a moment presented with a still of this kiss, and throughout this opening sequence stills of the studly Shatner taking a smooth drag or issuing a wry smirk underly the credits (which are comparatively few). Turns out it was produced by Socrates Ballis.

Shatner exits the club, directly into a convertible parked at the door, and the belly-dancer climbs in with him, and again they kiss. (Impulse veterans get kicks out of this- it seems an uncomfortable kiss, to say the least. Perhaps he grabbed her ass? The sly dog.) But what's this? A grumpy blonde of about 38 is watching from behind a car, and boy, does she look pissed!

We jump-cut to some presumably later time, and the blonde is harrumphing the frantic defenses of the grown-up Matt Stone (for it is he). "I suppose you're going to tell me she was your sister," and when he protests, she snaps the first excellent line of the film (and there are many), "NOBODY's 'just friends' with a belly-dancer!" as she drives them off in her sedan.

They arrive, still arguing, at the edge of a large isolated dam, parking just at the edge of a steep decline into the water. 'Helen' has seen through Stone's facade and reviles him as a philanderer. Matt responds by calling her a 'cheap, over-the-hill broad' and wonders why he's been wasting his time. Shatner's acting here is a marvel - rough, authentic, excessive- but it's about to get a whole lot better. Helen shouts "Go back to her! Your belly-dancing tramp!" "Don't call her that!" he protests. "Well that's what she is! A tramp! A tramp! A tramp!"

Trumpets blare; the frame shimmers; the words "A tramp! A tramp!" echo into an abyss of confusion. Shatner's sweating face fades into a childhood memory- to Sarge shouting "Tramp! Tramp!"- to the thrust of the sword- and seized by ghosts of the past, Matt Stone grabs his girlfriend by the throat and chokes her life away as she screams and claws at his face. Seeing Shatner kill, for the first time, is a revelation- the black fury in his gleaming eyes, his nose squashed into his blood-gorged cheeks as he grapples with his girl. He is transformed, and the legend of Kirk is forever shattered. When Helen is quite still, he slumps into the seat, panting; then, evidently deciding he has pre-empted his cue, repeats the same set of pants with a look of wearied boredom. The trance ended, it takes some time before the horrible truth settles- and upon realising he has killed, Stone exits the car, and silhouetted against a positively ghastly factory backdrop, sobs, utterly unconvincingly, into his sleeve.

As if we hadn't seen it coming, it dawns on Matt to sit Helen's body upright in the seat, release the handbrake and roll the car downhill into the lake. As the the last bubbles rise, he gazes in horror at the receding traces of his crime.

And with a curious expression, bites his pinky.

Without spoiling everything by hammering out an excessively detailed blow-by-blow for the entirety of the film (I've only covered the first ten minutes here), I will mention a meagre few of the unmissable features of this must-see movie:

    Shatner acting contrite for having run over a dog (implied by jump-cut)
    Shatner in a sleeveless sailor shirt and VERY tight red jeans
    Multiple scenes of Shatner seduction and sex
    Not one but TWO scenes which open from a panning shot of a woman's snugly-fitted behind
    Pinky-bitin' aplenty!

Impulse really is essential viewing. If you thought you understood the genius of Shatner, and you haven't yet seen it, think again. Impulse will make you reassess the very standards by which you judge a film. The music is insane, the screenplay inane, and the star of the film, such a very great star indeed, excels even as he wallows in failure. Unparalleled entertainment- ecstasy on film- see it, see it, see it!

Impulse
Steven Gould
Tor Books, 2013

Impulse is the third book in the Jumper series, and moves the tone a bit more towards young adult, although it is rather dark for that genre. It is best read after reading the first two books in the series, although there is a natural break between the preceding two novels and this one. This story takes place 16 years after the previous novel and brings in a new protagonist, so the largest concern in reading them out of order are the massive spoilers (I will, however, avoid most of those in this writeup).

Cent has lived her whole life in hiding. Her parents have the ability to teleport, and powerful and mysterious organizations want to control this power. The previous two books dealt with her parents fighting these battles, and they are determined that she will not have to live in fear they way they have. Their solution to this is to spend most of their time in the most remote parts of the world, popping back to civilization only to do some shopping or odd jobs (mostly disaster relief).

Then, one day, Cent almost falls and has a terrible accident... but instead of hitting the ground, she finds herself back in her bedroom. After not too much experimentation, she figures out how to teleport when and where she wants, and gives her parents an ultimatum: come out of hiding and let her go to high school, or she'll run off and do high school on her own.

The story alternates between Cent and her parents doing disaster relief around the world, and Cent adjusting to high-school. This being a Steven Gould book, of course there are sinister bad guys at the high school, and Cent finds herself the target of an especially vicious gang. She invents a few new teleportation tricks beyond what her parents can do, and a good part of the story involves finding out how this can be used and abused.

Overall, this is very much a continuation of the tone and content of the earlier books, just a bit more polished and updated for a world with ubiquitous cell phones and internet. I wouldn't recommend starting the series here, but if you've read the first two books, don't stop! This book (and the next) are, I think, slightly better written, more modern in tone, and keep the nerdy exploration of the superpower interesting and engaging.

The next book in the series is Exo, and will again feature Cent as the protagonist.

SFQ22

Im"pulse (?), n. [L. impulsus, fr. impellere. See Impel.]

1.

The act of impelling, or driving onward with sudden force; impulsion; especially, force so communicated as to produced motion suddenly, or immediately.

All spontaneous animal motion is performed by mechanical impulse. S. Clarke.

2.

The effect of an impelling force; motion produced by a sudden or momentary force.

3. Mech.

The action of a force during a very small interval of time; the effect of such action; as, the impulse of a sudden blow upon a hard elastic body.

4.

A mental force which simply and directly urges to action; hasty inclination; sudden motive; momentary or transient influence of appetite or passion; propension; incitement; as, a man of good impulses; passion often gives a violent impulse to the will.

These were my natural impulses for the undertaking. Dryden.

Syn. -- Force; incentive; influence; motive; feeling; incitement; instigation.

 

© Webster 1913.


Im*pulse" (?), v. t. [See Impel.]

To impel; to incite.

[Obs.]

Pope.

 

© Webster 1913.

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