Trigonometric Substitution problem

frosty8688
Messages
126
Reaction score
0
1. ∫\frac{\sqrt{x^{2}-4}}{x} dx, x=2secθ, dx=2secθtanθ dθ



2. \sqrt{x^{2}-a^{2}},sec^{2}θ-1=tan^{2}θ



3. \sqrt{x^{2}-4}=\sqrt{4sec^{2}θ-4}=\sqrt{4(1+tan^{2}θ)-4}=\sqrt{4tan^{2}θ}=2\left|tanθ\right|=2tanθ;∫\frac{\sqrt{x^{2}-4}}{x}dx=∫\frac{2tanθ}{2secθ}dθ=\frac{ln\left|secθ\right|}{ln\left|secθ+tanθ\right|}+C=ln\left|secθ\right|-ln\left|secθ+tanθ\right|+C;∫\frac{\sqrt{x^{2}-4}}{x}dx=ln\left|\frac{x}{2}\right|-ln\left|\frac{x}{2}+\frac{\sqrt{x^{2}-4}}{2}\right|+C=ln\left|x\right|-ln\left|2\right|-ln\left|x+\sqrt{x^{2}-4}\right|+ln\left|2\right|+C. Please tell me what I did wrong.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
What happened to the substitution for dx in terms of dθ?
 
I see what you mean. Ok, here is what I have after the dx substitution: \int\frac{\sqrt{x^{2}-4}}{x}dx = \int\frac{2tanθ}{2secθ}2secθtanθdθ = 2\int tan^{2}θdθ
 
Which is: 2\int(sec^{2}θ-1)dθ = 2(tanθ-θ)+C
 
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