Ordinary Differential Equations – Inverse Laplace Transform of $s^n$

laplace transformordinary differential equations

I want to calculate Inverse Laplace Transform of $s^n$. I have an idea, but I do not know if it works?

We have a formula to compute inverse laplace transforms of functions as below,

$$\mathcal{L}^{-1} [ F(s) ] = -\frac{\mathcal{L}^{-1} [ F^{\prime}(s) ]}{t}.$$

So from the given formula, we can obtain

$$\mathcal{L}^{-1} [ s ]= -\frac{\mathcal{L}^{-1} [ 1 ]}{t}= -\frac{\delta (t)}{t}.$$
and as a result,
$$\mathcal{L}^{-1} [ s^n ] = (-1)^n\frac{n!\delta (t)}{t^n}$$
Is it right? In fact, I want to know the necessary conditions to use the given formula.

Best Answer

Intuitively, the derivative of the Dirac delta function $\delta'$ has Laplace transform $s$. The derivative of the Dirac delta is a generalized function that pulls out the derivative of the function with a change of sign: for any interval $[a,b]$ where $a < 0 < b$,

$$\int_a^b \delta'(t)f(t) \ dt = \left[ \delta(t) f(t) \right]_a^b - \int_a^b \delta(t) f'(t) \ dt = -f'(0)$$

Applying that procedure inductively,

$$L^{-1}\{s^n\}(t) = \delta^{(n)}(t)$$