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In calculus, the trapezoidal rule (also known as the trapezoid rule or trapezium rule) [a] is a technique for numerical integration, i.e., approximating the definite integral: (). The trapezoidal rule works by approximating the region under the graph of the function f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} as a trapezoid and calculating its area.
One derivation replaces the integrand () by the quadratic polynomial (i.e. parabola) () that takes the same values as () at the end points and and the midpoint +, where = /.
Simpson's rules are used to calculate the volume of lifeboats, [6] and by surveyors to calculate the volume of sludge in a ship's oil tanks. For instance, in the latter, Simpson's 3rd rule is used to find the volume between two co-ordinates. To calculate the entire area / volume, Simpson's first rule is used. [7]
Simpson's rule, which is based on a polynomial of order 2, is also a Newton–Cotes formula. Quadrature rules with equally spaced points have the very convenient property of nesting . The corresponding rule with each interval subdivided includes all the current points, so those integrand values can be re-used.
The zeroeth extrapolation, R(n, 0), is equivalent to the trapezoidal rule with 2 n + 1 points; the first extrapolation, R(n, 1), is equivalent to Simpson's rule with 2 n + 1 points. The second extrapolation, R(n, 2), is equivalent to Boole's rule with 2 n + 1 points. The further extrapolations differ from Newton-Cotes formulas.
While not derived as a Riemann sum, taking the average of the left and right Riemann sums is the trapezoidal rule and gives a trapezoidal sum. It is one of the simplest of a very general way of approximating integrals using weighted averages. This is followed in complexity by Simpson's rule and Newton–Cotes formulas.
Polynomial interpolation also forms the basis for algorithms in numerical quadrature (Simpson's rule) and numerical ordinary differential equations (multigrid methods). In computer graphics , polynomials can be used to approximate complicated plane curves given a few specified points, for example the shapes of letters in typography .
In numerical analysis and scientific computing, the trapezoidal rule is a numerical method to solve ordinary differential equations derived from the trapezoidal rule for computing integrals. The trapezoidal rule is an implicit second-order method, which can be considered as both a Runge–Kutta method and a linear multistep method.