Confusion regarding the unit step and unit impulse

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So I understand that the unit impulse function is the "derivative" of the unit-step, but why is it that unit impulse functions are used to begin with?

My differential equations textbook describes it in a physical sense as impulse functions before more useful to describe voltages/forces of large magnitudes that act over short time intervals, but what makes unit impulse more useful in modeling instantaneous forces?

note: I have justed learned unit-step and unit-impulse functions and am having trouble differentiating between what both do?