now here's a trick or shortcut for doing an anti-derivative of any secx function with an
odd power...
~sec
nx = 1/
(n-1)[sec
(n-2)xtanx + 1/
(n-1)[
(n-2)~sec
(n-2)x]
that n stuff can be confusing looking so here's a few examples
~sec
3x
n = 3
(n-1) = 2
(n-2) = 1
so ~sec
3x = 1/
2sec
1xtanx + 1/
2[
1~sec
1x]
in this case, the
1's aren't necessary so you end up with
~sec
3x = 1/
2secxtanx + 1/
2~secx + c
you of course can simplify the ~secx to be (ln|secx + tanx| + c) so the final answer would be
~sec
3x =
1/2secxtanx + 1/2(ln|secx + tanx|) + c
as you get higher and higher in powers, the final answer after you've done all of the simplification is going to get messier and messier, so be forewarned. Let's apply this shortcut to sec
5x. so...
~sec
5x
n = 5
(n-1) = 4
(n-2) = 3
~sec
5x 1/
4sec
3xtanx + 1/
4(
3~sec
3x)
here's where it starts to get a little messy if you want a final answer...you'll need to plug in the solution you got previously for ~sec
3x and then distribute the 3 and then 1/4 into it.
If you go ahead and do that...you'll end up with
~sec
5x = 1/4sec
3xtanx + 3/8secxtanx + 3/8(ln|secx + tanx|) + c
Basically, if you want to get a final answer with the integrals all simplified for any given odd power of secx, you'll have to know the answer for the previous odd power to do it. So to do sec
11x you'll need the answer to sec
9x. To do sec
9x, you need sec
7x and so on, and you'll just plug that answer into the shortcut formula as I did above to get your final answer. They get reaaaaaaaaally long the higher up you go in powers. Just to illustrate what I mean, here's the final answer for ~sec
11x...
~sec
11x = 1/10sec
9xtanx + 9/80sec
7xtanx + 63/480sec
5xtanx + 315/1920sec
3xtanx + 315/1280secxtanx + 315/1280(ln|secx + tanx|) + c
could I reduce those fractions? yes I could...but after doing all the work to get that, fraction reducing is just not real high on my list
you'll notice two things if you go through and do all of these expansions by hand. First...each time you go up a power (1,3,5,7,9,etc...) you end up with one more "term" than in the previous solution. For example...
~secx = ln|secx + tanx| + c (two terms if you count "c")
~sec
3x = 1/2secxtanx + 1/2(ln|secx + tanx|) + c (3 terms including "c")
~sec
5x = 1/4sec
3xtanx + 3/8secxtanx + 3/8(ln|secx + tanx|) + c (4 terms including "c")
and then if we look at ~sec
11x that I just showed you, following this pattern it should have 7 terms including "c" and you can see here that indeed it does.
~sec
11x = 1/10sec
9xtanx + 9/80sec
7xtanx + 63/480sec
5xtanx + 315/1920sec
3xtanx + 315/1280secxtanx + 315/1280(ln|secx + tanx|) + c
the second thing you'll notice is that no matter what power you are doing, your last term before "c" will ALWAYS be a/b(ln|secx + tanx|)
hope you guys find this info useful!