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Understanding Integrals and Area Calculations

The document discusses integration and how it can be used to find areas, volumes, and other quantities. It explains how integration is the reverse process of differentiation, and how the integral of a function can be found by taking the limit of summing increasingly narrow slices under the curve of that function. Specifically, it states that the integral of 2x is x^2 + C, where C is the constant of integration that arises because any function with a derivative of 2x could have been the original function.

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13 views3 pages

Understanding Integrals and Area Calculations

The document discusses integration and how it can be used to find areas, volumes, and other quantities. It explains how integration is the reverse process of differentiation, and how the integral of a function can be found by taking the limit of summing increasingly narrow slices under the curve of that function. Specifically, it states that the integral of 2x is x^2 + C, where C is the constant of integration that arises because any function with a derivative of 2x could have been the original function.

Uploaded by

skumarkn
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Integration can be used to find areas, volumes, central points and many useful things.

But it is
easiest to start with finding the area under the curve of a function like this:

What is the area under y = f(x) ?

Slices

We could calculate the function at a few points and add up slices


of width Δx like this (but the answer won't be very accurate):

We can make Δx a lot smaller and add up many small slices


(answer is getting better):

And as the slices approach zero in width, the answer approaches


the true answer.

We now write dx to mean the Δx slices are approaching zero in


width.

That is a lot of adding up!


But we don't have to add them up, as there is a "shortcut". Because ...

... finding an Integral is the reverse of finding a Derivative.


(So you should really know about Derivatives before reading more!)

Like here:

Example: What is an integral of 2x?

We know that the derivative of x2 is 2x ...

... so an integral of 2x is x2

You will see more examples later.

Notation
The symbol for "Integral" is a stylish "S"
(for "Sum", the idea of summing slices):

After the Integral Symbol we put the function we want to find the integral of (called the Integrand),

and then finish with dx to mean the slices go in the x direction (and approach zero in width).

And here is how we write the answer:

Plus C
We wrote the answer as x2 but why + C ?

It is the "Constant of Integration". It is there because of all the functions whose derivative is 2x:

The derivative of x2+4 is 2x, and the derivative of x2+99 is also 2x, and so on! Because the
derivative of a constant is zero.
So when we reverse the operation (to find the integral) we only know 2x, but there could have been
a constant of any value.

So we wrap up the idea by just writing + C at the end.

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