I think it may also derive from the Gaussian being infinitely
differentiable. It is almost useless for integration without a CAS or
anything other than polynomials.
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: Barton Willis
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 7:09 PM
To: Rupert Swarbrick ; maxima at math.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: [Maxima] DiracDelta
> Something with an exp(-x^2) in it just seems perversely hard to integrate!
The popularity of the gaussian in this context almost surely derives from
the heat kernel.
--bw
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