Four Crotchets On Elementary Integration

Four Crotchets on Elementary Integration
Author: Leroy F. Meyers

College Mathematics Journal, 22:5, 1991, 410-413.

This article illustrates four different short cuts to integration. The first simplifies the integral of an exponential times a polynomial from multiple integration-by-parts operations to just one. The second is an alternate method of describing the limits of integration to avoid ambiguities. The third uses substitution to simplify an integral both by simplifying the integrand and also its limits of integration. Lastly, the fourth short cut simplifies first-order ODE’s by incorporating the given initial conditions from the beginning to avoid manipulating awkward exponentials, reducing the total number of requisite steps (and mitigating environmental damage from the transformation of trees into log functions).

Summary by Lorcan McGonigle, Pomona College '13.

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