Integratingfunctionsofdefiniteparity Payingattentiontothesymmetrypropertiesofafunctioncansometimessaveyoua lotofeffortwhendoingintegrals.

Thus,wheneverdoingadefiniteintegralofthe form
a

f (x)dx

youshouldfirstchecktoseeiftheintegrandhasdefiniteparity,i.e.,isanoddor evenfunctiondefinedas: Inthecaseofanevenintegrandonecanreducetherangeofintegration:

a a

oddfunction: evenfunction:

f(x)=f(x) f(x)=f(x).

whileforanoddintegrandtheaboveintegralvanishes: a f odd (x)dx = 0 . Thislatterresultisextremelyuseful.Thus,forexample,theintegral

a

f even (x)dx = 2 f even (x)dx

0

cos(ax)e bx dx

istrivialtocompute...right?