In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a Summation, which is used to calculate area, volume, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Integral calculus is a very well established mathematical discipline for which there are many sources. See and , for example. the other being Derivative. 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 Coordinate 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 function 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.
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..
In the Middle East, Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen ( AD) derived a formula for the sum of .. Alhazen determined the equations to calculate the area enclosed by the curve represented by (which translates to the integral in contemporary notation), for any given non-negative integer value of . 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..
The next significant advances in integral calculus did not begin to appear until the 17th century. At this time, the work of Cavalieri with his method of indivisibles, and work by Fermat, began to lay the foundations of modern calculus,. with Cavalieri computing the integrals of up to degree in Cavalieri's quadrature formula.. The case n = −1 required the invention of a function, the hyperbolic logarithm, achieved by quadrature of the hyperbola in 1647.
Further steps were made in the early 17th century by Isaac Barrow and Torricelli, who provided the first hints of a connection between integration and differentiation. Barrow provided the first proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus.. John Wallis generalized Cavalieri's method, computing integrals of to a general power, including negative powers and fractional powers..
Isaac Newton used a small vertical bar above a variable to indicate integration, or placed the variable inside a box. The vertical bar was easily confused with or , which are used to indicate differentiation, and the box notation was difficult for printers to reproduce, so these notations were not widely adopted..
When the limits are omitted, as in
the integral is called an indefinite integral, which represents a class of functions (the antiderivative) whose derivative is the integrand.. The fundamental theorem of calculus relates the evaluation of definite integrals to indefinite integrals. There are several extensions of the notation for integrals to encompass integration on unbounded domains and/or in multiple dimensions (see later sections of this article).
In advanced settings, it is not uncommon to leave out when only the simple Riemann integral is being used, or the exact type of integral is immaterial. For instance, one might write to express the linearity of the integral, a property shared by the Riemann integral and all generalizations thereof..
As another example, to find the area of the region bounded by the graph of the function between and , one can divide the interval into five pieces (), then construct rectangles using the right end height of each piece (thus ) and sum their areas to get the approximation
This partitions the interval into sub-intervals indexed by , each of which is "tagged" with a specific point . A Riemann sum of a function with respect to such a tagged partition is defined as
thus each term of the sum is the area of a rectangle with height equal to the function value at the chosen point of the given sub-interval, and width the same as the width of sub-interval, . The mesh of such a tagged partition is the width of the largest sub-interval formed by the partition, . The Riemann integral of a function over the interval is equal to if:.
When the chosen tags are the maximum (respectively, minimum) value of the function in each interval, the Riemann sum becomes an upper (respectively, lower) Darboux integral, suggesting the close connection between the Riemann integral and the Darboux integral.
Such an integral is the Lebesgue integral, that exploits the following fact to enlarge the class of integrable functions: if the values of a function are rearranged over the domain, the integral of a function should remain the same. Thus Henri Lebesgue introduced the integral bearing his name, explaining this integral thus in a letter to Paul Montel:.
As Folland puts it, "To compute the Riemann integral of , one partitions the domain into subintervals", while in the Lebesgue integral, "one is in effect partitioning the range of ".. The definition of the Lebesgue integral thus begins with a measure, μ. In the simplest case, the Lebesgue measure of an interval is its width, , so that the Lebesgue integral agrees with the (proper) Riemann integral when both exist.. In more complicated cases, the sets being measured can be highly fragmented, with no continuity and no resemblance to intervals.
Using the "partitioning the range of " philosophy, the integral of a non-negative function should be the sum over of the areas between a thin horizontal strip between and . This area is just . Let . The Lebesgue integral of is then defined by
where the integral on the right is an ordinary improper Riemann integral ( is a strictly decreasing positive function, and therefore has a well-defined improper Riemann integral).. For a suitable class of functions (the measurable functions) this defines the Lebesgue integral.
A general measurable function is Lebesgue-integrable if the sum of the absolute values of the areas of the regions between the graph of and the -axis is finite:.
In that case, the integral is, as in the Riemannian case, the difference between the area above the -axis and the area below the -axis:.
where
& f^+(x) &&{}={} \max \{f(x),0\} &&{}={} \begin{cases} f(x), & \text{if } f(x) > 0, \\ 0, & \text{otherwise,} \end{cases}\\ & f^-(x) &&{}={} \max \{-f(x),0\} &&{}={} \begin{cases} -f(x), & \text{if } f(x) < 0, \\ 0, & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases}\end{alignat}
is a linear functional on this vector space. Thus, the collection of integrable functions is closed under taking linear combinations, and the integral of a linear combination is the linear combination of the integrals:.
Similarly, the set of Real number-valued Lebesgue-integrable functions on a given measure space with measure is closed under taking linear combinations and hence form a vector space, and the Lebesgue integral
is a linear functional on this vector space, so that:
More generally, consider the vector space of all measurable functions on a measure space , taking values in a locally compact complete topological vector space over a locally compact Topological ring . Then one may define an abstract integration map assigning to each function an element of or the symbol ,
that is compatible with linear combinations.. In this situation, the linearity holds for the subspace of functions whose integral is an element of (i.e. "finite"). The most important special cases arise when is , , or a finite extension of the field of , and is a finite-dimensional vector space over , and when and is a complex Hilbert space.
Linearity, together with some natural continuity properties and normalization for a certain class of "simple" functions, may be used to give an alternative definition of the integral. This is the approach of Daniell integral for the case of real-valued functions on a set , generalized by Nicolas Bourbaki to functions with values in a locally compact topological vector space. See for an axiomatic characterization of the integral.
(fg)(x)= f(x) g(x), \; f^2 (x) = (f(x))^2, \; |f| (x) = |f(x)|. If is Riemann-integrable on then the same is true for , and Moreover, if and are both Riemann-integrable then is also Riemann-integrable, and This inequality, known as the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality, plays a prominent role in [[Hilbert space]] theory, where the left hand side is interpreted as the inner product of two square-integrable functions and on the interval .
over an interval is defined if . This means that the upper and lower sums of the function are evaluated on a partition whose values are increasing. Geometrically, this signifies that integration takes place "left to right", evaluating within intervals where an interval with a higher index lies to the right of one with a lower index. The values and , the end-points of the interval, are called the limits of integration of . Integrals can also be defined if :
With , this implies:
The first convention is necessary in consideration of taking integrals over subintervals of ; the second says that an integral taken over a degenerate interval, or a point, should be zero. One reason for the first convention is that the integrability of on an interval implies that is integrable on any subinterval , but in particular integrals have the property that if is any element of , then:
With the first convention, the resulting relation
\int_a^c f(x) \, dx &{}= \int_a^b f(x) \, dx - \int_c^b f(x) \, dx \\ &{} = \int_a^b f(x) \, dx + \int_b^c f(x) \, dx\end{align}
is then well-defined for any cyclic permutation of , , and .
Then, is continuous on , differentiable on the open interval , and
for all in .
If is integrable on then
has unbounded intervals for both domain and range.]] A "proper" Riemann integral assumes the integrand is defined and finite on a closed and bounded interval, bracketed by the limits of integration. An improper integral occurs when one or more of these conditions is not satisfied. In some cases such integrals may be defined by considering the limit of a sequence of proper on progressively larger intervals.
If the interval is unbounded, for instance at its upper end, then the improper integral is the limit as that endpoint goes to infinity:.
If the integrand is only defined or finite on a half-open interval, for instance , then again a limit may provide a finite result:.
That is, the improper integral is the limit of proper integrals as one endpoint of the interval of integration approaches either a specified real number, or , or . In more complicated cases, limits are required at both endpoints, or at interior points.
where the differential indicates that integration is taken with respect to area. This double integral can be defined using , and represents the (signed) volume under the graph of over the domain R.. Under suitable conditions (e.g., if f is continuous), Fubini's theorem states that this integral can be expressed as an equivalent iterated integral.
This reduces the problem of computing a double integral to computing one-dimensional integrals. Because of this, another notation for the integral over R uses a double integral sign:
Integration over more general domains is possible. The integral of a function f, with respect to volume, over an n-dimensional region D of is denoted by symbols such as:
A line integral (sometimes called a path integral) is an integral where the function to be integrated is evaluated along a curve.. Various different line integrals are in use. In the case of a closed curve it is also called a contour integral.
The function to be integrated may be a scalar field or a vector field. The value of the line integral is the sum of values of the field at all points on the curve, weighted by some scalar function on the curve (commonly arc length or, for a vector field, the scalar product of the vector field with a differential vector in the curve).. This weighting distinguishes the line integral from simpler integrals defined on intervals. Many simple formulas in physics have natural continuous analogs in terms of line integrals; for example, the fact that Mechanical work is equal to force, , multiplied by displacement, , may be expressed (in terms of vector quantities) as:.
For an object moving along a path in a vector field such as an electric field or gravitational field, the total work done by the field on the object is obtained by summing up the differential work done in moving from to . This gives the line integral.
For an example of applications of surface integrals, consider a vector field on a surface ; that is, for each point in , is a vector. Imagine that a fluid flows through , such that determines the velocity of the fluid at . The flux is defined as the quantity of fluid flowing through in unit amount of time. To find the flux, one need to take the dot product of with the unit surface normal to at each point, which will give a scalar field, which is integrated over the surface:.
The fluid flux in this example may be from a physical fluid such as water or air, or from electrical or magnetic flux. Thus surface integrals have applications in physics, particularly with the classical theory of electromagnetism.
This is known as a contour integral.
where E, F, G are functions in three dimensions. A differential one-form can be integrated over an oriented path, and the resulting integral is just another way of writing a line integral. Here the basic differentials dx, dy, dz measure infinitesimal oriented lengths parallel to the three coordinate axes.
A differential two-form is a sum of the form
Here the basic two-forms measure oriented areas parallel to the coordinate two-planes. The symbol denotes the wedge product, which is similar to the cross product in the sense that the wedge product of two forms representing oriented lengths represents an oriented area. A two-form can be integrated over an oriented surface, and the resulting integral is equivalent to the surface integral giving the flux of .
Unlike the cross product, and the three-dimensional vector calculus, the wedge product and the calculus of differential forms makes sense in arbitrary dimension and on more general manifolds (curves, surfaces, and their higher-dimensional analogs). The exterior derivative plays the role of the gradient and curl of vector calculus, and Stokes' theorem simultaneously generalizes the three theorems of vector calculus: the divergence theorem, Green's theorem, and the Kelvin-Stokes theorem.
Integrals can be used for computing the area of a two-dimensional region that has a curved boundary, as well as Volume integral of a three-dimensional object that has a curved boundary. The area of a two-dimensional region can be calculated using the aforementioned definite integral.. The volume of a three-dimensional object such as a disc or washer can be computed by disc integration using the equation for the volume of a cylinder, , where is the radius. In the case of a simple disc created by rotating a curve about the -axis, the radius is given by , and its height is the differential . Using an integral with bounds and , the volume of the disc is equal to:.Integrals are also used in physics, in areas like kinematics to find quantities like displacement, time, and velocity. For example, in rectilinear motion, the displacement of an object over the time interval is given by
where is the velocity expressed as a function of time.. The work done by a force (given as a function of position) from an initial position to a final position is:.
Integrals are also used in thermodynamics, where thermodynamic integration is used to calculate the difference in free energy between two given states.
Sometimes it is necessary to use one of the many techniques that have been developed to evaluate integrals. Most of these techniques rewrite one integral as a different one which is hopefully more tractable. Techniques include integration by substitution, integration by parts, integration by trigonometric substitution, and integration by partial fractions.
Alternative methods exist to compute more complex integrals. Many nonelementary integrals can be expanded in a Taylor series and integrated term by term. Occasionally, the resulting infinite series can be summed analytically. The method of convolution using Meijer G-functions can also be used, assuming that the integrand can be written as a product of Meijer G-functions. There are also many less common ways of calculating definite integrals; for instance, Parseval's identity can be used to transform an integral over a rectangular region into an infinite sum. Occasionally, an integral can be evaluated by a trick; for an example of this, see Gaussian integral.
Computations of volumes of solids of revolution can usually be done with disk integration or shell integration.
Specific results which have been worked out by various techniques are collected in the list of integrals.
A major mathematical difficulty in symbolic integration is that in many cases, a relatively simple function does not have integrals that can be expressed in closed form involving only elementary functions, include rational and exponential functions, logarithm, trigonometric functions and inverse trigonometric functions, and the operations of multiplication and composition. The Risch algorithm provides a general criterion to determine whether the antiderivative of an elementary function is elementary and to compute the integral if is elementary. However, functions with closed expressions of antiderivatives are the exception, and consequently, computerized algebra systems have no hope of being able to find an antiderivative for a randomly constructed elementary function. On the positive side, if the 'building blocks' for antiderivatives are fixed in advance, it may still be possible to decide whether the antiderivative of a given function can be expressed using these blocks and operations of multiplication and composition and to find the symbolic answer whenever it exists. The Risch algorithm, implemented in Mathematica, Maple and other computer algebra systems, does just that for functions and antiderivatives built from rational functions, Nth root, logarithm, and exponential functions.
Some special integrands occur often enough to warrant special study. In particular, it may be useful to have, in the set of antiderivatives, the special functions (like the Legendre functions, the hypergeometric function, the gamma function, the incomplete gamma function and so on). Extending Risch's algorithm to include such functions is possible but challenging and has been an active research subject.
More recently a new approach has emerged, using D-finite functions, which are the solutions of linear differential equations with polynomial coefficients. Most of the elementary and special functions are D-finite, and the integral of a D-finite function is also a D-finite function. This provides an algorithm to express the antiderivative of a D-finite function as the solution of a differential equation. This theory also allows one to compute the definite integral of a D-function as the sum of a series given by the first coefficients and provides an algorithm to compute any coefficient.
Rule-based integration systems facilitate integration. Rubi, a computer algebra system rule-based integrator, pattern matches an extensive system of symbolic integration rules to integrate a wide variety of integrands. This system uses over 6600 integration rules to compute integrals. The method of brackets is a generalization of Ramanujan's master theorem that can be applied to a wide range of univariate and multivariate integrals. A set of rules are applied to the coefficients and exponential terms of the integrand's power series expansion to determine the integral. The method is closely related to the Mellin transform.
Riemann sums, the trapezoidal rule, and Simpson's rule are examples of a family of quadrature rules called the Newton–Cotes formulas. The degree Newton–Cotes quadrature rule approximates the polynomial on each subinterval by a degree polynomial. This polynomial is chosen to interpolate the values of the function on the interval.. Higher degree Newton–Cotes approximations can be more accurate, but they require more function evaluations, and they can suffer from numerical inaccuracy due to Runge's phenomenon. One solution to this problem is Clenshaw–Curtis quadrature, in which the integrand is approximated by expanding it in terms of Chebyshev polynomials.
Romberg's method halves the step widths incrementally, giving trapezoid approximations denoted by , , and so on, where is half of . For each new step size, only half the new function values need to be computed; the others carry over from the previous size. It then Interpolation a polynomial through the approximations, and extrapolate to . Gaussian quadrature evaluates the function at the roots of a set of orthogonal polynomials.. An -point Gaussian method is exact for polynomials of degree up to .
The computation of higher-dimensional integrals (for example, volume calculations) makes important use of such alternatives as Monte Carlo integration..
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