Nasty integral - which piece of technology to trust?

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Nasty integral -- which piece of technology to trust?

Homework Statement



indefinite integral: e^x / (e^2x + 9) dx
Technology is allowed to solve it.

Homework Equations



The Attempt at a Solution



My trusty TI-89 says (pi/540)arctan((e^3x)/3)

while two different online integral calculators came up with (1/3log(e))*arctan((e^3x)/3)

What do you think? Which is right/should I trust? Should I just do it by hand? If so, what method do you recommend?

Thanks
 
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u=e^x
 


Hmm, I don't know if it's just by foggy memory of Calc II but that substitution doesn't seem to help it at all.
 


Make the subst e^{x} = 3 u[/tex] and your integral will be converted to a table one. none of the answers is correct.
 


What relationship is there between e^{2x} and e^x? That should help with the integral and the substitution.
 


Thanks you two, I am starting to get it, but I am running into trouble.

So far, 3u=e^x, du=?dx -- should I take du/dx of e^x/3 and get du = e^x dx? But if I do that then I get an e^x in my integral below.

integral: 3u / (9u^2 + 9)
 


what is du?
 


The derivative of u. I thought I had to take the derivative of my subsitution and solve for dx to sub that back into my integral.
 


Write what you get for du.
 
  • #10


I think your trusty TI-89 calculated exactly what you told it to calculate, rather than what you meant to calculate. Is it in degree mode, perchance, instead of radian mode?
 
  • #11


yes :)
 
  • #12


so I got du = (e^x)/3 dx. What do I do with this expression? I thought I was supposed to solve for dx, and plug that into my integral with my u's. Is that not right?

integral: 3u / (9u^2 + 9) * 3 / (e^x) du
 
  • #13


Hurkyl, it was in radian mode.
 
  • #14


Oh, so then the default output of the arctangent function for TI-89 is in degrees.
 
  • #15


Oh wow, I just did it in degree mode and it produced the answer consistent with the back of the book.
 
  • #16


Thanks Statdad, Dickfore and Hurkyl, so very much!
 
  • #17


Oh and I finally figured out the substitution thing. I realized I didn't need to sub 3u into the numerator
 
  • #18


u=e^x
du=e^xdx
Your integral becomes
1/(u^2 +9) which is the antiderievative of (1/3)arctan(u/3)...
 
Last edited:

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