Integral of x³ - 6x² + 9x + 16 from -1 to 2 gives -3/4, not 47.25

  • Thread starter Thread starter Briggs
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Integration
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
3 replies · 2K views
Briggs
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
I am having a little trouble on this problem for calculus..

Curve has equation y = x³ - 6x² + 9x + 16

I am asked to find [tex]\int_{-1}^{2} (x^3 - 6x^2 + 9x + 16) dx[/tex]
I get the answer to be -3/4 but the book gives the answer as 47.25. I do not know how the book got this. The way I found it was
[tex][\frac{x^4}{4} - \frac{6x^3}{3} + \frac{9x^2}{2}]_{-1}^{2}[/tex] and then putting x=2 and solving it then putting x=-1 and solving it then subtract the answer from x=-1 from x=2 so i found [tex](4-16+18)-(\frac{1}{4}--2+\frac{9}{2}) = \frac{-3}{4}[/tex]

It is important that I get this answer correct because It is needed for the next question of finding the area under a curve, could it just be that the book has an incorrect answer as it has known to be in the past or am i going about this completely the wrong way.
Thanks for any help you guys can provide
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Your primitive function is wrong. You need an extra term of 16x in there.
 
The integral of any constant A is

[tex]\int A \ dx = Ax+\mathcal{C} [/itex]<br /> <br /> ,where [itex]\mathcal{C}[/itex] is an integration constant...<br /> <br /> Daniel.[/tex]
 
Thanks for the help I see where I was going wrong there, I was a little confused about the constant thing thanks for clearing it up