Pre-calculus integration[edit]

The first documented systematic technique capable of determining integrals is the method of
exhaustion of the ancient Greek astronomer Eudoxus (ca. 370 BC), which sought to find areas and
volumes by breaking them up into an infinite number of divisions for which the area or volume was
known.[1] This method was further developed and employed by Archimedes in the 3rd century BC
and used to calculate the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, area of
an ellipse, the area under a parabola, the volume of a segment of a paraboloid of revolution, the
volume of a segment of a hyperboloid of revolution, and the area of a spiral.[2]
A similar method was independently developed in China around the 3rd century AD by Liu Hui, who
used it to find the area of the circle. This method was later used in the 5th century by Chinese father-
and-son mathematicians Zu Chongzhi and Zu Geng to find the volume of a sphere.[3]
In the Middle East, Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (c. 965 – c. 1040 AD) derived a
formula for the sum of fourth powers.[4] He used the results to carry out what would now be called an
integration of this function, where the formulae for the sums of integral squares and fourth powers
allowed him to calculate the volume of a paraboloid.[5]
The next significant advances in integral calculus did not

This article is about the concept of definite integrals in calculus. For the indefinite integral,
see antiderivative. For the set of numbers, see integer. For other uses, see Integral
(disambiguation).
"Area under the curve" redirects here. For the pharmacology integral, see Area under the curve
(pharmacokinetics). For the statistics concept, see Receiver operating characteristic § Area under
the curve.

A definite integral of a function can be

represented as the signed area of the region bounded by its graph and the horizontal axis; in the
above graph as an example, the integral of is the yellow (−) area subtracted from the blue (+)
area

Part of a series of articles about

 Calculus

 Fundamental theorem
 Limits
 Continuity
 Rolle's theorem
 Mean value theorem
 Inverse function theorem

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Differential
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Integral
Lists of integrals
Integral transform
Leibniz integral rule
Definitions
Antiderivative
Integral (improper)
Riemann integral
Lebesgue integration
Contour integration
Integral of inverse functions
Integration by
Parts
Discs
Cylindrical shells
Substitution (trigonometric, tangent half-
angle, Euler)
Euler's formula
Partial fractions
Changing order
Reduction formulae
Differentiating under the integral sign
Risch algorithm

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Series
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Multivariable
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In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to

calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an
integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,[a] the other being differentiation.
Integration was initially used to solve problems in mathematics and physics, such as finding the area
under a curve, or determining displacement from velocity. Usage of integration expanded to a wide
variety of scientific fields thereafter.
A definite integral computes the signed area of the region in the plane that is bounded by
the graph of a given function between two points in the real line. Conventionally, areas above the
horizontal axis of the plane are positive while areas below are negative. Integrals also refer to the
concept of an antiderivative, a function whose derivative is the given function; in this case, they are
also called indefinite integrals. The fundamental theorem of calculus relates definite integration to
differentiation and provides a method to compute the definite integral of a function when its
antiderivative is known; differentiation and integration are inverse operations.
Although methods of calculating areas and volumes dated from ancient Greek mathematics, the
principles of integration were formulated independently by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz in the late 17th century, who thought of the area under a curve as an infinite sum of
rectangles of infinitesimal width. Bernhard Riemann later gave a rigorous definition of integrals,
which is based on a limiting procedure that approximates the area of a curvilinear region by breaking
the region into infinitesimally thin vertical slabs. In the early 20th century, Henri
Lebesgue generalized Riemann's formulation by introducing what is now referred to as
the Lebesgue integral; it is more general than Riemann's in the sense that a wider class of functions
are Lebesgue-integrable.
Integrals may be generalized depending on the type of the function as well as the domain over which
the integration is performed. For example, a line integral is defined for functions of two or more
variables, and the interval of integration is replaced by a curve connecting two points in space. In
a surface integral, the curve is replaced by a piece of a surface in three-dimensional space.

History[edit]
See also: History of calculus