Struggling to Integrate Complicated Expression - Need Help!

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around integrating a complex expression involving a square root and polynomial terms. The original poster expresses difficulty with the integration process and mentions a connection to finding the volume of an ellipse.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss various integration techniques, including substitution methods. The original poster attempts to integrate the expression directly and questions the application of derivatives in the context of substitution. Others suggest using a "u" substitution to simplify the expression.

Discussion Status

Some participants have offered guidance on substitution methods, while others are exploring different interpretations of the problem. The discussion is ongoing, with no explicit consensus reached on the best approach to take.

Contextual Notes

The original poster mentions a potential issue with obtaining nonreal answers and relates the integration problem to a larger task of calculating the volume of an ellipse, indicating possible constraints in their understanding of the problem setup.

Sombra
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I'm trying to integrate this awful expression (by dx):

{[1-(x-3)^2]/9 - 4[(1-(x-3)^2)/9)^1/2] + 4

Help! How can I integrate this? It's so complicated. For the first part, would it be [x- (x-3)^3]/27x? For the last one I know it is 4x, so that's not a problem, but its mainly the second term with the square root that's the worst. Thank you!
 
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By the way, if you get a nonreal answer for this like I did on the calculator, this problem is part of my bigger problem of finding the volume of the ellipse:
y = ((1-(x-3)^2)/9)-2, which is supposed to have its center at 3, cross the x-axis at 0 and 6, and have a maximum y value at 2, rotated 360 degrees about the x- axis. Maybe I got up to that point wrong, but what I did was find the volume of a section in the figure, which I said was V= pi(y^2)dx and in order to get y^2, I squared the equation for the ellipse that I gave at the top. That's where my above question comes in. Thanks.
 
Do a "u" substitution to see if that helps you look at it better.

[tex]u = x-3[/tex]

[tex]\int\frac{1-u^2}{9}du-\int4\sqrt{\frac{1-u^2}{9}}du + \int4dx[/tex]

EDIT: Also, remember that [tex]\sqrt{\frac{a}{n}} = \frac{\sqrt{a}}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex]
 
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ok, so I ended up figuring out the first and last terms without substitution, but I'm using it for the middle one. I sad let u= x-3 and then du/dx= 1 so du=dx. But in order to do that, I think I still need to have the derivative of 1-u^2 in order to apply the rule, which would be 2u, but how can that be possible?
 
For the first term, think of the trig inverse functions.
 

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