Pedagogy and long division or The z-transform is rediscovered again!

Abstract

In his nice short article about viewing the process of “inverse convolution” as “long division,” B.J. Evans expressed his dismay at the lack of general knowledge of simple ways of describing this process. I, too, lament the absence in the geophysical literature of the simple, intuitive, insightful approaches to our subject that Evans obviously seeks and discovers on his own. We often make geophysics mysterious and obscure and, therefore, make it less accessible both to students and to others not already “experts” in the field. When those others include management in our companies or members of our government, we pay a dear price for our aloof treatment. This short note consists of two parts: First, I will describe the process of “long division” that Evans independently discovered and place it in a more general framework; second, I will discuss another case in which a simple concept in our field has been made to appear difficult, and what we can do to increase the level of understanding of these concepts.