Solving Difficult Integral: Strategies & Tips

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vampire
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Integral
Vampire
Messages
11
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


The whole integral is a double integral, but I can't even perform the first integration.

The integrand is cosx*sqrt(3+(cosx)^2) dxdy
The x bounds are from arctan(y) to pi/4
the y bounds are from 0 to 1

Homework Equations


Converting rectangular to polar may help.

The Attempt at a Solution



I've tried parts, but it was a disaster. I also started converting it to polar, but that was also a disaster.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I switched dx and dy and the bounds.

The new y bounds are from 0 to tanx
The new x bounds are from 0 to pi/4

The resulting integrand after successfully integrating in terms of y is

-sinx*sqrt(3 + (cosx)^2) dx

It's a little nicer, but still ugly.

Putting the integrand into the mathematica online integrator, I get this:

(-3*ArcSinh[Cos[x]/Sqrt[3]])/2 - (Cos[x]*Sqrt[3 + Cos[x]^2])/2

How do I get here? I tried by starting with parts, but it doesn't get me far.
 
Solved with trig substitution and then parts.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top