Lecture 5: Fundamental

Theorem of calculus

Physics 155: Mathematical Integral or antiderivative

and Computational Physics Is there a difference?
 The Fundamental theorem
The fundamental theorem of calculus is due to Isaac Barrow. Aside
from this theorem, his main claim to fame is being a teacher to
Isaac Newton!
When I first studied calculus, I had no appreciation for this theorem,
but that was because I was focused on being a technician of calculus
not a practitioner. As you grow as a problem solver, moving toward
being a practitioner will help you on everything you work on.
The theorem has two main applications: (i) it shows that the
derivative and the integral are inverses of each other and (ii) it
shows how to evaluate the definite integral.
When we interpret the derivative as a tangent and the integral as a
signed area, their connection does not seem obvious at all.
But think of position as the integral of velocity and velocity as the
derivative of position, and the ideas seem more naturally
connected.

Physics 155: Mathematical Integral or antiderivative

and Computational Physics Is there a difference?
 The Fundamental theorem: Proof
So our goal is to relate the integral and the derivative, to show they are inverses.
We begin with the definition and we have the requirement that is both continuous and
monotonic on the range from to with lying in between. Then the theorem says .
To prove this, we start with the definition of the derivative: .
The RHS becomes . We assume without loss of generality that the function is monotonic
increasing. Then for .
So, we have . So then . Now, because is continuous, as , we have and we find .
This can be extended to general continuous functions that are piecewise monotonic as well.

Physics 155: Mathematical Integral or antiderivative

and Computational Physics Is there a difference?
 The Fundamental theorem:
Corollary
If we have a function that satisfies , then , and is called the
antiderivative of . This allows us to determine definite integrals, for .
Note: there are an infinite number of antiderivatives due to the
constant , but the definite integral has only one value because the ’s
cancel.
Another important point is that if is continuous, this does not imply
that is differentiable. The derivative may not exist, as given by the
result in Fig. 81 of the book or by the absolute value function.
But, on the other hand, if is differentiable, then it must be
continuous.

Physics 155: Mathematical Integral or antiderivative

and Computational Physics Is there a difference?