Calculate an integral using euler substituition.

  • Thread starter Thread starter MathematicalPhysicist
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Euler Integral
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 4K views
Messages
4,662
Reaction score
372
i was asked to calculate the integral:
[tex]\int\frac{dx}{x+\sqrt{x^2-x+1}}[/tex] by using euler substituition (i.e, finding a line which intersects sqrt(x^2-x+1) through one point and then the equation of the line will be y-y0=t(x-x0) where (x0,y0) is one point of intersection, and then substituing x for a rational function of t.
i did so in this particular example but i got stuck.
so i tried to recheck it through mathworld's integrator, but it states there isn't such formula for this integral, is this correct?
obviously if it's integrator, so it must be. (-:
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Well, I'd do it this way, let t, such that:
[tex]\sqrt{x ^ 2 - x + 1} = t - x \quad (1)[/tex] or stated differently [tex]t = x + \sqrt{x ^ 2 - x + 1}[/tex]

Now, we'll square both sides of (1):
[tex]\Rightarrow x ^ 2 - x + 1 = t ^ 2 - 2xt + x ^ 2[/tex]
[tex]\Rightarrow - x + 1 = t ^ 2 - 2xt[/tex]

Isolate x's to one side, and we'll try to express x in terms of t:
[tex]\Rightarrow - x + 2xt = t ^ 2 - 1[/tex]

[tex]\Rightarrow x (2t - 1) = t ^ 2 - 1[/tex]

[tex]\Rightarrow x = \frac{t ^ 2 - 1}{2t - 1} \quad (2)[/tex]

Take the differential of both sides yields:

[tex]\Rightarrow dx = \frac{2 t ^ 2 -2t + 2}{(2t - 1) ^ 2} dt = 2 \frac{t ^ 2 - t + 1}{(2t - 1) ^ 2} dt \quad (3)[/tex]

Now substitute (1), (2), and (3) to your original integral, we'll have:
[tex]\int \frac{dx}{x + \sqrt{x ^ 2 - x + 1}} = 2 \int \frac{\frac{t ^ 2 - t + 1}{(2t - 1) ^ 2} dt}{t} = 2 \int \frac{t ^ 2 - t + 1}{(2t - 1) ^ 2 t} dt[/tex]
It looks much better than its original form, right?
Can you go from here? :)