October 2003:

Home | Problem Archive | Past Winners | Number Games | Contact Me

September 2003:
Find the integral of f2(x) f '(x) dx. Now find the integral of fn(x) f '(x) dx, if n belongs to integers.

Bonus: Find the integral of e2f(x)


If we let u = f(x) then du = f '(x)dx. So the integral becomes the itegral of u2du which becomes u3/3 or f3(x)/3 + C. In the general case, the integral solution becomes fn+1/(n+1) + C.
For the bonus, we have to use integration by parts (which we could have also used for the problem itself). We know the integral of u dv = u*v - integ(v du). So we set up u = f(x), dv = e2f(x) f'(x) dx. Thus, du = f'(x) dx, and v can be found using the same technique we did for the previous part of our problem, so v becomes e2f(x)/2.
Hence, uv - integ(v du) yields to f(x)*e2f(x)/2 - integ(e2f(x)/2 f'(x) dx. This becomes f(x)*e2f(x)/2 - e2f(x)/4 or more simply e2f(x) * [f(x)/2 - 1/4].


Correct Solutions: Andy Young
Previous Month Archive Next Month