What is Distribution (mathematics)?
:''This is about distribution in a mathematical sense, other meanings can be found at [[distribution]]'' In [[mathematics]], a '''distribution''' is a generalisation of a [[Function (mathematics)|function]]. Distributions were introduced in the middle of the 20th century by [[Laurent Schwartz]], who received a [[Fields Medal]] for his work on them. The Fields medal is comparable to a [[Nobel Prize]] in mathematics, which does not exist. Distributions were introduced to model certain concepts from [[Physics]]. Physics has the concept of a ''mass of points in space''. The [[Dirac delta function]] can model an [[electromagnetic]] charge of a point in space. The Dirac delta function is zero everywhere, except at one point, where it is infinitely large. This needs to be the case, because the [[density]] function needs to be 1. There is no function that can meet this criterion, except if integraton is taken as a ''function'' in the mathematical sense. Today, distributions are used in different fields of mathematics and physics, for example to model [[Partial differential equation]]s or [[Fourier analysis|Fourier analyses]], which are important for [[Quantum electrodynamics]] or [[signal processing]]. {{Math-stub}} [[Category:Mathematics]]