It was amazing to be able to just do a little bit of odd math here or there, and suddenly have the solution on how to fix something completely unrelated, like how to tilt an airplane safely or make a robot balance a pen upright or something, by modeling it. Granted, we did very simple models, but the sheer scalability and power of these techniques is what made me feel on top of the world.
Are you thinking of the Jacobian matrix? I'm not sure what you mean by equational conversion. The Laplacian matrix is from graph theory and doesn't involve derivatives. The Laplacian operator involves differentiation, but is not a matrix.
What does the comment mean then?
> "Also, apparently the Laplacian Transform can be used to convert Calculus derivative equations into algebraic ones..."
Neither. It's "Laplace Transform".
> The Laplacian is a matrix of (partial) derivitives and is used for the equational conversion.
Bar the name, this is called Operational Calculus[0].
This trick is - AFAIR from my classes - the basis of control theory math. You convert a control system to algebra, do your work there, and in the end, you convert back to differential equations.