How to find the integral of the secant function

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around finding the integral of the secant function, specifically focusing on hyperbolic secant and its relationship to other functions. Participants explore various substitution methods and integral identities.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to solve the integral using substitutions and logarithmic identities, while others suggest alternative substitutions such as Tanh(x/2) and question the validity of the original poster's approach. Some participants clarify the distinction between hyperbolic functions and their inverses.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active, with participants offering different substitution methods and questioning the correctness of previous steps. There is no explicit consensus on the best approach, but several lines of reasoning are being explored.

Contextual Notes

Participants are navigating the complexities of hyperbolic functions and their integrals, with some confusion regarding the definitions and relationships between secant and its inverse functions. The original poster's approach may be influenced by misunderstandings of these concepts.

frozen7
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[tex]\int \sec hx[/tex]
I solve it in this way:
[tex]\int \arccos hx[/tex]
[tex]\int \ln (x^2 + \sqrt{x^2 -1}) dx[/tex]

Then, I substitute [tex]u = \ln (x + \sqrt{x^2 + 1})[/tex]
then I get
[tex]x\ln(x + \sqrt{x^2 + 1}) - \int x/\sqrt{x^2 + 1}dx[/tex]

and then I substitute v = x^2 + 1

[tex]x\ln(x + \sqrt{x^2 + 1}) -1/2 \int v^(1/2) dv[/tex]
and finally I get the answer,
[tex]x\ln(x + \sqrt{x^2 + 1}) -\sqrt{x^2 + 1} + C[/tex]

Am I right?
 
Last edited:
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Do the Tanh(x/2) substitution.
 
tan (x/2) substitution? How?
 
Your second integral doesn't equal your first integral.
sech(x) is NOT equal to arcosh(x)!

sech(x) is the RECIPROCAL* of cosh(x), arcosh(x) is the (functional) INVERSE of cosh(x).




*Sometimes called the multiplicative inverse.
 
Do you know how to integrate sec(x)? Because a lot of times you can follow very similar procecures working with hyperbolic functions as with trigonometric ones. You just have to be careful about the signs of terms in certain identiies (eg, sin^2(x)+cos^2(x)=1 becomes cosh^2(x)-sinh^2(x)=1). Another approach would be to write sech out in terms of e^x and e^-x, and then use the substitution u=e^x.
 

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