Definite Integrals explanations, examples, practice problems. Ready? Let's do this.
Left-Hand Sum
We have formulas to find areas of shapes like rectangles, triangles, and circles (pi, anyone?). What if we want to find the area of a less-reasonable shape? Think of sea monkeys. Sure, we all want...
Right-Hand Sum
There is much debate about who is more awesome...right-handers or south-paws. Would you want Shoeless Joe Jackson on your team, or Nomar Garciaparra? That's why it's better to have a switch hitter...
Comparing Right- and Left-Hand Sums
Left Hand Sums and Right Hand Sums give us different approximations of the area under of a curve. If one sum gives us an overestimate and the other an underestimate,then we can hone in on what the...
Midpoint Sum
We're driving along from right coast to the left coast, and now it's time to take a rest stop at the midpoint sum. Grab some snacks before continuing on. We recommend all flavors of Sun Chips and w...
Trapezoid Sum
All of these summations are starting to feel like Rube Goldberg Machines. Granted, Rube Goldberg Machines are awesome, but do we seriously need this many methods to sum up intervals? Trust us, they...
Comparison of Sums
You'll probably get asked to compare the accuracy of different types of sums. Here are the main things you need to remember.Whether the left- and right-hand sums give over- or -underestimates depen...
Definite Integrals of Non-Negative Functions
When f is a non-negative function and a
Definite Integrals of Real-Valued Functions
When we're integrating a non-negative function from a to b, the integral
Properties of Definite Integrals
There are a lot of useful rules for how to combine integrals, combine integrands, and play with the limits of integration. For some functions there are shortcuts to integration.For this whole secti...
Average Value
We know how to take the average of a group of numbers: add all the numbers and divide by how many there are.What would the "average value" of a function be? A function like f (x) = x or f (x)...
In the Real World
Remember all that stuff about left-hand sums and right-hand sums? That's why your calculator works. Your calculator doesn't know what sin(3) is any better than you do, but it's able to take accurat...