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In mathematics, the definite integral ∫ a b f ( x ) d x {\displaystyle \int _{a}^{b}f(x)\,dx} is the area of the region in the xy -plane bounded by the graph of f , the x -axis, and the lines x = a and x = b , such that area above the x -axis adds to the total, and that below the x -axis subtracts from the total.
An even larger, multivolume table is the Integrals and Series by Prudnikov, Brychkov, and Marichev (with volumes 1–3 listing integrals and series of elementary and special functions, volume 4–5 are tables of Laplace transforms).
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 ...
Integration by parts is a heuristic rather than a purely mechanical process for solving integrals; given a single function to integrate, the typical strategy is to carefully separate this single function into a product of two functions u(x)v(x) such that the residual integral from the integration by parts formula is easier to evaluate than the ...
Indefinite integrals are antiderivative functions. A constant (the constant of integration) may be added to the right hand side of any of these formulas, but has been suppressed here in the interest of brevity.
The resulting integrands are of the same form as the original integrand, so these reduction formulas can be repeatedly applied to drive the exponents m and p toward 0. These reduction formulas can be used for integrands having integer and/or fractional exponents.
To compute the integral, we set n to its value and use the reduction formula to express it in terms of the (n – 1) or (n – 2) integral. The lower index integral can be used to calculate the higher index ones; the process is continued repeatedly until we reach a point where the function to be integrated can be computed, usually when its index is 0 or 1.
The following is a list of integrals (antiderivative functions) of irrational functions. For a complete list of integral functions, see lists of integrals. Throughout this article the constant of integration is omitted for brevity.