LOCUS 1

Integration:Basics

Section - 1 INTRODUCTION

Instead of starting right away with a list of (scary-looking !) integration formulae, we will first try to understand the
physical significance of integration and why it is required at all; this will then lead to a realisation of how powerful
integration really is and how indispensable it is as a tool in not only mathematics but almost all other sciences.
Mathematicians, before calculus was discovered, were interested in two issues related to an arbitrary curve.

How do we find the slope of the tangent to the curve at an arbitrary x? And, how do we find the area under the
curve between any two arbitrary values of x, x1 and x2.
The first question lead to Differential Calculus which we have already studied in quite detail in the previous units.
The second question, of the area under the curve, gave rise to Integral Calculus, which is the subject of this and
some subsequent chapters.
What do you think would be a good way of evaluating the area under an arbitrary curve y = f(x) from x = a to
x = b?
y
y= f(x)

x
a b

Fig - 2

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LOCUS 2

One intuitive way would be to divide this area into a finite number of rectangles which approximate this required
area, as shown below:

y
y = f(x)

x
a b

Fig - 3

For example, we have approximated the required area with 7 rectangles above; the sum of the areas of these
7 rectangles (the area of rectangle is simply width × height) then gives us an approximate value of the area under
y = f(x).
How can we make this approximation more accurate ?
We have taken only 7 rectangles between x = a and x = b. Suppose we had taken a 1000 rectangles. It is
intuitively clear that the sum of the areas these 1000 rectangles would much better approximate the actual area
under the curve, than only 7 rectangles. In other words, the “left-out area”( the shaded area in Fig. 3, which
represents the difference between area under the curve and the sum of areas of all the rectangles) would be much
smaller in case of a 1000 rectangles, than only 7 rectangles.
The key to a better approximation lies, therefore, in increasing n, the number of rectangles between x = a and
x = b.
Let us now write down An, the sum of the area of the n rectangles between x = a and x = b for y = f(x).

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LOCUS 3

From the geometry of the figure above and the explanation provided alongside:
n
An = ∑ S r
r =1

n
= ∑ w. f ( a + ( r − 1) w )
r =1

b−a n   r −1  
= ∑ f a +   ( b − a )
 n  r =1   n  

(Try to calculate this sum for a few simple functions like f ( x ) = x ; f ( x ) = x 2 etc.)

Let the actual area under the curve be A. We have discussed that the approximation by sum will become more
accurate as the number of rectangles becomes larger. As n → ∞, An should become closer and closer to A.

 n 
A = lim An = lim ∑ S r 
n →∞ n →∞
 r =1 

This process is what is known as integration. We ‘integrated’ the areas of all the individual rectangles to get the
area under the curve. The notation that is used for this process is:

n n
A = lim ∑ S r = lim ∑ ( hr × w )
n →∞ n →∞
r =1 r =1

Observe carefully the notation and see how each symbol corresponds to the expression just above it :

It should be clear now that integration is nothing more than summation (in the limit n → ∞ ).

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LOCUS 4

Let us apply all this to a concrete example now. Suppose that we want to find the area under the curve f ( x ) = x 2
between x = 0 and x = 3 . y

x
0 3

Fig - 6

We divide the interval [0, 3], into n rectangles as shown. The width of each rectangle is

3
w=
n
The height of the r th rectangle is
 3
hr = f  0 + ( r − 1) ⋅ 
 n

3 
= f  ( r − 1)
n 
9
2 (
= r − 1)
2

n
Therefore, the sum of the areas of the n rectangles is :
n
An = ∑ w × hr
r =1

n
27
=∑ 3 (
r − 1)
2

r =1 n

27 n
3 ∑(
= r − 1)
2

n r =1

27 ( n − 1)( n )( 2n − 1)
=
n3 6

9  2n3 − 3n 2 + n 
= ⋅ 
2  n3 
9 3 1 
= 2− + 2 
2 n n 

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LOCUS 5

The precise area under the curve is , therefore:

A = lim An
n →∞

9
= ×2
2
= 9.
This result can be represented using the integration notation as
3

∫ x dx = 9
2

The process by which we carried out this integration is know as integration by first principles. However, even
for a simple function like f ( x ) = x 2 , this process is lengthy, leave alone functions with complex expressions.
Therefore, we need to develop a set of tools and formulae and a unified approach by which we can carry out
integration in a faster manner.

Section - 2 THE NEWTON – LEIBNITZ FORMULA

Our approach in this section will be to lay the groundwork on which all the tools and techniques of integration will
be built in the coming sections. Let us take an arbitrary curve y = f ( x ). Our purpose is to find the area under this
curve from x = a to x = b.
What we first do is fix an arbitrary point on the number line, say x = 0, and let our variable x move on the number
line.

The area under the curve y = f ( x ) from 0 to x will obviously be some function of x. Let us denote this function

by g(x) : g(x) denotes the area under y = f ( x ) from 0 to x.

x
g ( x ) = ∫ f ( x ) dx
0
To avoid confusion, we can denote the integration variable ( the variable that goes from 0 to x) by x' instead of x,
so that :
x

g ( x ) = ∫ f ( x′ ) dx′
0

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LOCUS 6

Now let us evaluate the derivative of g(x) at an arbitrary x :

d ( g ( x )) g ( x + h) − g ( x)
= lim
dx h →0 h

 x+h x

 ∫ f ( x ) dx − ∫ f ( x′ ) dx′ 
′ ′
 
= lim  0 0

h →0 h
 
 

Notice that in the expression above, the numerator represents the difference in area under the curve from
(0 to x + h) from the area under the curve from (0 to x); what should be the result: the area under the curve from
x to x + h.

Therefore,

 x+h 
 ∫ f ( x′ ) dx′ 
d ( g ( x ))  
= lim  x 
dx → h
 
h 0

 

Now think about the right hand side expression carefully. The numerator represents the area under the curve from
x to x + h. h is an infinitesimally small quantity.

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LOCUS 7

Therefore, in the integration region x to x + h, we can approximate the function’s value as f(x) itself, because in
such a small interval, the variation in f(x) is also infinitesimally small. Hence, we can approximate this infinitesimally
small area as a rectangle of width h and height f(x); you must convince yourself that as h → 0, this approximation
becomes more and more accurate. Now using this argument further, we get:

d ( g ( x )) f ( x)× h
=
dx h
= f ( x )!

This simple result shows that the function g(x) is simply such that its derivative equals f(x). g(x) is termed the anti-
derivative of f(x); the name is self-explanatory.
x3
For example, the anti derivative of f ( x ) = x 2 would be g ( x ) = + c (c is a constant so its inclusion in the
3
d (c )
expression of g(x) is valid as = 0 ):
dx
d ( g ( x )) d  x3 
=  + c
x dx  3 

3x 2
= +0
3
= x2
Similarly, the anti derivative of f(x) = cos x would be g(x) = sin x + c since
d ( g ( x )) d (sin x + c )
=
dx dx
= cos x
Now, returning to our original requirement, how do we find out the area under f(x) using the anti-derivative; this is
now quite straight forward. Suppose our requirement is to find the area under the curve f(x) from x = a to x = b.

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LOCUS 8

We can equivalently evaluate this area by calculating the area from 0 to b and subtracting from it the area under the
curve from 0 to a:

b b a

∫ f ( x ) dx = ∫ f ( x ) dx – ∫ f ( x ) dx
a 0 0

But we just defined the anti derivative as

x

g ( x ) = ∫ f ( x′ ) dx′
0

Therefore,
b

∫ f ( x ) dx = g (b )
0

∫ f ( x ) dx = g ( a )
0

and the required area under the curve simply becomes

∫ f ( x ) dx = g (b ) − g (a )
a

This extraordinary result is the Newton Leibnitz formula. What it says is that to evaluate the area under f(x) from
a to b, evaluate the anti derivative g(x) of f(x) and then find g (b ) – g ( a ).

(Note that there is nothing special about the lower limit in the anti-derivative integral being 0; it could have been
any arbitrary constant, the final outcome is not in anyway related to this constant; it was just selected as a reference
point).
You must ensure, for a good understanding of calculus, that you’ve entirely followed this discussion; if not, you
must re-read it till you fully understand it.
The next chapter is entirely devoted to developing ways to find out the anti-derivative of an arbitrary given function.
The process of finding out the anti-derivative is called indefinite integration; the anti-derivative is also referred to
as the indefinite integral. When we actually substitute the limits of integration (the two x-values between which we
want to find out the area) into the anti-derivative, i.e, when we calculate g (b ) – g ( a ) , the process is known as
definite integration. The adjectives indefinite and definite are self-explanatory.

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LOCUS 9

EXERCISE

Q.1 Evaluate the following “definite” integrals by first principles:

1 2

∫ x dx ∫ x dx
2
(a) (b)
0 −2

3 3

∫ x dx ∫ x dx
3 3
(c) (d)
0 −3

1 1

∫ e dx ∫
x
(e) (f) xdx
0 0

1 3

∫ (x + x + 1) dx ∫ [ x ] dx
2
(g) (h)
−1 −2

10 3

(i) ∫ {x} dx
0
(j) ∫ x dx
2

Q.2 Try to “guess” the anti-derivatives of the following functions:

(a) f ( x ) = x5 + x 4 (b) f ( x ) = sec2 x

1
(c) f ( x ) = tan x (d) f (x) =
1 + x2
(e) f (x) = x

********

Maths / Integration : Basics