# Error Function

1. Oct 27, 2005

### abdo375

Can any one compute the integration of the error function?

2. Oct 27, 2005

### dextercioby

Sure. There are tables for this,too. Look in Abramowitz & Stegun for the treatment of "erf". And i'd try lokking in Gradsteyn & Rytzik, too.

Daniel.

3. Oct 27, 2005

### Staff: Mentor

FWIW - the standard C library (C99) supports erf() the error function and
erfc() the complement of the error function.

http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/namd/doxygen/erf_8C-source.html

4. Oct 28, 2005

### abdo375

No i meant the actual derivation of the results in the tables.....

Isn't there any other way except the numerical method ?

Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2017
5. Oct 28, 2005

### HallsofIvy

Staff Emeritus
Then what DO you mean? The only way to get values for erf(x) itself is to use numerical methods- that isn't going to be any "analytic" way to get a closed form for its integral.

6. Oct 29, 2005

### abdo375

See the problem is that I was trying to find the steps that lead this integration $$\int^{\infty}_{0}e^{-u^{2}}du$$ to equal the square root of pi so I did some research and found that if the integration was computed without it's limits it will give the square root of pi multiplied by the error function so now I'm trying to find the value of the error function with it's limits from zero to infinity.
or can someone tell me if all i did was wrong and there is a whole other way to computing this integral.

Last edited: Oct 29, 2005
7. Oct 29, 2005

### lurflurf

I said this in another thread