Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Differentiating under the integral sign

created by fledy

(idea) by fledy (2.7 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Jul 09 2005 at 4:57:24

Also known as Leibniz Integral Rule.
The story behind the rule is interesting. American physicist Richard P. Feynman (what a droll sounding phrase) self-taught himself Calculus when he was in high school. The textbook he used, authored by Woods, had an interesting technique which didn't seem to crop up in many other Calculus textbooks. It was called "differentiating under the integral sign," and Feynman recalls in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! that he seemed to have a different "box of tools." "I used that one damn tool again and again."

Okay. So, with that said, I will explain the rule.

WHAT IS THIS TECHNIQUE?

(HERE BE DRAGONS^H^H^H^H^H^H^HCALCULUS)

So, what is this wonderful set of tools which Feynman had? Here's how it goes.
You have a function, h(x), but it has a parameter in it, s. Let's say you can express this function as the derivative of another function, f(x,s), taken with respect to the parameter s. So, h(x) = ∂/∂s f(x,s). To find the integral of h(x), you can use that function f to find the integral in the following way:

     ⌠b(s)         ⌠b(s)
∂/∂s | f(x,s) dx = | ∂/∂s[f(x,s)] dx + f(b(s), s) ∂b/∂s - f(a(s), s) ∂a/∂s
     ⌡a(s)         ⌡a(s)

That's what the rule says formally. If the bounds of the definite integral are constant, those ugly last two terms drop out. Here's a less gobbled form, applicable for indefinite integrals, and easily modified for definite integrals (by plopping on the bounds):

∂/∂s ∫ f(x,s) dx = ∫ ∂/∂s[f(x,s)] dx

N.B. That ∂ symbol is a partial differential. It's basically the same thing as a derivative, in calculation. All it means is "Find the derivative of the function where s is the variable and act as if x were constant, even though it's another variable."

Using this technique is rather ingenious, and quite peculiar. In the end, what you wind up doing is evaluating an integral by taking a derivative (or an nth derivative, in some cases).
Let's say you wanted to evaluate the following integral:

x e2x dx

It could be done using integration by parts, but we'll use this technique anyway, because it demonstrates the technique adequately. And because I can't think of a better example.
What we do is make a function, f, which is es x.

f(s) = es x
f'(s) = x es x


(notice how the variable of f is actually s, not x).

This is the same thing as saying:

f(x,s) = es x
∂/∂s[f(x,s)] = x es x

That first derivative looks ALMOST like the function we want to find (except there's an s instead of a 2). Using the technique:

∂/∂s[∫ f(x,s) dx] = ∫ ∂/∂s[f(x,s)] dx


Now substitute in the function for f, and solve.

∂/∂s[∫ es x dx] = ∫ ∂/∂s[es x] dx
= ∫ x es x dx

So now, on the left side, we have a simpler integral to calculate (es x), and all we need to do is find the derivative of that integral with respect to another variable (s).

∫ es x dx = es x/s
x es x dx = ∂/∂s[es x/s] = (s es x - x es x)/s2

And then we plug in 2 for s.
Okay, so you say you could have done that easier with integration by parts? Well, the beauty of this technique shines when you have an integral like:

x5 e3x dx

You could evaluate this through repeated integration by parts. Of course, this is a pain, and keeping track of the variables gets really annoying really quick. The neat thing about this is that you only need to take derivatives, which can be slightly more straightforward and less of a pain.

xn es x dx

Which is:

xn es x dx = ∂n/∂sn[∫ es x dx]

While finding that nth derivative may be a pain if the quotient rule is involved, it's sometimes easier than using multiple integration by parts.

There are probably many other, much more creative ways to use this technique which I haven't explaint here. Please, elaborate on your own here.


SOURCES:
-Calculus&Mathematica, Calculus II
-http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LeibnizIntegralRule.html

printable version
chaos

Here Be Dragons The beer bong calculus problem ^H Richard P. Feynman
Partial differential equation Calculus Feynman diagram integration by parts
Erf Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! The Integral Trees vector
Differential calculus weird differential operator
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
The best nodes of all time:
Important Landmark Cases in Educational Law
The Darkness
British Residential Electric Wiring
mouser
Florist
group theory
The Wild Bunch
2008 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs
We are using the machines to steal it all back again
Manifesto of Futurist Musicians
Genghis Khan
What Everything does better than anything else
The mathematician as madman
New Writeups
antigravpussy
One fly amongst many(person)
sam512
Moon Base Shackleton, 1978(fiction)
Pavlovna
toy boy(person)
XWiz
tear jerker(review)
Heitah
Anarchy is Order(idea)
jessicaj
July 26, 2008(dream)
Berek
ABBA(person)
devolution
k-hole(place)
Nadine_2
The Sound Of Madness(review)
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo, the Loneliest dog in Purgatory(fiction)
locke baron
lynx(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us(person)
This page courtesy of The Everything Development Company