Which book has the best exercises for practicing integrals for an exam?

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    Calculus Integral
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SUMMARY

The best book for practicing integrals in preparation for exams is "Calculus" by James Stewart, particularly the chapters on techniques of integration. Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 cover essential methods such as integration by parts, trigonometric products, inverse trigonometric substitution, and partial fractions. The fifth section contains approximately fifty integrals without specified techniques, encouraging self-discovery of methods. Mastery of these exercises ensures a strong foundation for success in integration exams.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of integral calculus concepts
  • Familiarity with techniques of integration, including integration by parts and substitution
  • Knowledge of geometric series and their applications in integration
  • Access to "Calculus" by James Stewart, preferably the "Early Transcendentals" edition
NEXT STEPS
  • Practice problems from Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 of "Calculus" by James Stewart
  • Explore advanced integration techniques using resources like "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering"
  • Study the properties and applications of the Li function in integrals
  • Review additional exercises from "Principles of Mathematical Analysis" by Walter Rudin for deeper understanding
USEFUL FOR

Students preparing for calculus exams, educators seeking effective teaching resources, and anyone looking to enhance their skills in integral calculus.

alba_ei
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which is the best book to obtain excercises of integrlas for practice for an exam? I mean should i concentrate on 1 book or is vbest try various?
Another question: which is the book where are the most difficult integrals? if you know various please write them from the one that contain the easier to the harder excersices
 
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just look for a table of integrals and try to prove each of them...if you can manage this then you should be fine on a test
 
try this one on for size

\int{\frac{x}{e^{x}-1}}dx

between 0 and infinity
 
How do you do that? I tried with int. by parts, a sub won't work that I can see. I did it on the integrals.wolfram.com and it had a Li function.
 
you use the fact that the integral goes from 0 to infinity.

I believe that the integral can be solved by dividing the top and bottom by e^{-x} expand it as a geometric series, and integrate term by term from 0 to infinity.
 
Alba, do you happen to have a calculus book by James Stewart? If not, you can probably get one at your school's library (it might be a special version like "early transcendentals," or "early vectors," it doesn't really matter). Depending on what version you've got, either chapter 7 or chapter 8 will be on techniques of integration. The first four sections are on integration by parts, trigonometric products, inverse trigonometric substitution, and partial fractions. You can work a couple problems from each section to practice specific techniques.

The fifth section of this chapter contains about fifty integrals (I might be off on that number). The catch here is that they don't tell you what technique to use. You need to figure that out on your own. If your exam is on integration, then just work as many problems as you can comfortably do before the test, and you should be very well prepared. Remember that the key with mathematics is to practice as many problems as you can. As my dad always says, you need to have "extreme familiarity with the material."

Anyway, I hope that helps!
 
Last edited:
arunma said:
Alba, do you happen to have a calculus book by James Stewart? If not, you can probably get one at your school's library (it might be a special version like "early transcendentals," or "early vectors," it doesn't really matter). Depending on what version you've got, either chapter 7 or chapter 8 will be on techniques of integration. The first four sections are on integration by parts, trigonometric products, inverse trigonometric substitution, and partial fractions. You can work a couple problems from each section to practice specific techniques.

The fifth section of this chapter contains about fifty integrals (I might be off on that number). The catch here is that they don't tell you what technique to use. You need to figure that out on your own. If your exam is on integration, then just work as many problems as you can comfortably do before the test, and you should be very well prepared. Remember that the key with mathematics is to practice as many problems as you can. As my dad always says, you need to have "extreme familiarity with the material."

Anyway, I hope that helps!

i see the book of stewart and have a lot of excersices i was watching other books like spiavak but is a little strange so i think that the stewart's book its going to be helpful thanks for the reference
 
tim_lou said:
you use the fact that the integral goes from 0 to infinity.

I believe that the integral can be solved by dividing the top and bottom by e^{-x} expand it as a geometric series, and integrate term by term from 0 to infinity.

Bingo! That is exactly the way to do it.
 
alba_ei said:
i see the book of stewart and have a lot of excersices i was watching other books like spiavak but is a little strange so i think that the stewart's book its going to be helpful thanks for the reference

I'm glad you're finding it helpful. To be honest, I'd say that you don't need to bother looking at multiple books. After all, fifty integrals is a lot of problems. And there are only so many permutations of the same problem that you can be given (after all, even the most creative textbook author can only write up so many variations of inverse trigonometric substitution). If somehow you manage to do every problem in that section, and get all the answers right, then I'd be surprised if you don't ace an exam on integration.
 

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