this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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[–] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

In engineering we have a simmillar thing for some cases where we replace 0 with a variable that is 0 at the limit but not 0 itself then continue on like nothing happened. It all cancels out at the end but feels so wrong.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

In control dynamics u have a transfer function and need to determine the Routh-Hurwitz criterion it will sometimes give u division by 0 errors so u sub in a variable and say its almost zero but not quite and continue on like nothing happened.

Eg determining the stability of a system with characteristic eq of A(s) = 3s^4+6s^3+2s^2+4s+5=0

If u do a RH array u will end up with a zero which then will give u (4*0−30)/0 so u sub in 𝜀 for 0 giving (4𝜀−30)/𝜀 and continue on. That eq obviously evaluates to negative infinity. U are essentially just saying 𝜀 is an infinity small positive number ie it is the number next to 0 on the positive side.

EDIT: If the markdown is messed up the eq should be A(s) = 3s**4+6s**3+2s**2+4s+5=0

When using ** as super notation

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

control dynamics

Well, that's a relief! That's a completely different kind of engineering than I studied, so I can stop being worried that there was something I was supposed to have learned but didn't.

[–] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Its general mechanical background stuff

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ahh. Mechanical before shit starts to move.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

It's truly the universal constant