Integral problem reverse order

  • Thread starter Thread starter Damascus Road
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Integral Reverse
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
4 replies · 7K views
Damascus Road
Messages
117
Reaction score
0
Integral problem "reverse order"

Greetings,
This is from an online homework question:

Evaluate the integral by reversing the order of integration.

[tex]\int^{1}_{0}\int^{8}_{8y} e^{x^{2}}dxdy[/tex]

Although, I fail to see how this works, if I switch the order I get:


[tex]\int^{8}_{8y}\int^{1}_{0} e^{x^{2}}dydx[/tex]


after integrating wrt y, it boils down to

[tex]\int^{8}_{8y} e^{x^{2}}dy[/tex]

which won't give me a number... did I do something wrong?
 
Physics news on Phys.org


The limits of your integral depend on y, so you can't just switch the order of integration without changing the limits accordingly. Your integration region is {y: [0,1], x: [8y,8]}, so to switch the order of integration you need to figure out what the limits of y are in terms of x and what the constant limits of x are.

It helps to draw a picture of the region of integration. y runs from 0 to 1 along the y-axis, and since x is from 8y to 8, it runs from 0 to 8 along the x-axis, but you're only considering the area below the line x = 8y, or equivalently y = x/8.

So, the limits could equivalently be written as x: [0,8], y:[x/8,1]. So, when you go to integrate over y, you need to switch to these limits when you integrate.
 


Ohhh, thanks Mute. My bad.

So, after integrating wrt y, it becomes

[tex]\int^{8}_{0}[e^{x^{2}} - \frac{x}{8}e^{x^{2}}] dx[/tex]

requiring integration by parts, with a substitution...etc. Yes?
 


The outer integral is from 0 to 1/8, not from 0 to 8.
[tex]\int xe^{x^2} dx[/tex]
can be integrated by the substitution u= x2.

But
[itex]\int e^{x^2} dx[/tex[<br /> does not have any elementary function as it anti-derivative.[/itex]
 


So, your saying y runs from 0 to 1/8 and x runs from 1 to 1/8?

that doesn't make sense to me...