There are some similar questions around but they didn't help me much.
I've got a graph that I'm supposed to perform a laplace transform on. From $0<t<2$, it's a ramp function from $f(0)=0 to f(2) = 10$ (slope of 5) and then from 2 to 6 it's a -2.5 slope from $f(2) = 10$ to $f(6) = 0$.
Another way to solve this, I think, would be to take derivatives until it's in the form of impulse functions and then do the laplace using the transformation for a second derivative, but this is what I was doing first and I got stuck …
I translated the intervals into $5tu(t) -7.5tu(t-2) + 2.5tu(t-6)$, where $u(t)$ is a heaviside step function.
I did this thinking I could use the time shift transform, but got stuck with the $t*u(t-2)$ part. The time shift transform is $f(t-a)u(t-a) = e^{-as}$, but in all but the first case, t is not shifted, only the step function is.
Would I have to use the integral definition of the transform from this point, or am I missing something?
Best Answer
The cleanest way to handle such problems is to write $$ t u(t-2) = (t-2+2) u(t-2) = (t-2) u(t-2) + 2 u(t-2)$$ Now take Laplace transforms and use the time shift property you wrote.
You are almost there.