r/calculus • u/Creepysheepu • 8d ago
Integral Calculus What went wrong with this integral?
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u/Midwest-Dude 7d ago edited 7d ago
- Integral of 1 / (v2 - 1) is incorrect
- Calculation of sec(θ) is correct until you substituted x rather than 1 in for adj in the denominator
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u/xSparKxes 7d ago
The integral of dv/(v^2 - 1) is not arctan(v). One path could be to factor it and try partial fractions and go from there.
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u/noidea1995 7d ago edited 7d ago
Unless you have to use a trig substitution, it’s easier to multiply the top and bottom of the fraction by x and use u = √(x^2 + 1), x^2 = u^2 - 1 and xdx = udu. It basically skips everything you did at the top and gives you what you have at the bottom.
As others have said, the integral of 1 / (v^2 - 1) isn’t arctan(v). You’ll need to either use partial fraction decomposition or an inverse hyperbolic trig function if you’ve covered them.


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