Solving Indefinite Integral of Normal Equation

Erienion
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
I've been trying to integrate the following function but have gotten somewhat stuck doing it. The answer i managed to produce gave some bogan answers.

the integral in question is

\int e^\frac{-(x-\mu)^2}{(2\sigma)^2}

where \mu and \sigma are constants.

its part of the normal equation and I've been trying to write a program to do some calculations with it.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The integral can be expressed in terms of the error function, erf(x). Unfortunately, there is no elementary form.
 
As far as I can see, by setting y = x-\mu /2\sigma, we get the famous e^{-y^2} which doesn't have a primitive. You can however develop e^{-y^2} as a Taylor serie and integrate term by term. You get the (convergant) serie of general term

a_n=\frac{(-1)^n x^{2n+1}}{(2n + 1)n!}
 
Back
Top