Higher Level Integration Marathon & Questions (1 Viewer)

leehuan

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 31, 2014
Messages
5,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
Higher Level Integration Marathon & Questions
This is a marathon thread for integration (mainly numerical or computation of integrals including manipulation of integrals).

Please aim to pitch your questions for first-year/second-year university level maths, although not necessary. Excelling & gifted/talented secondary school students are also invited to contribute.

Note 1: Please do not post HIGH SCHOOL integration (ext 1 or ext 2) related questions. Use the respective Maths Ext 1 & Maths Ext 2 forums instead.
Note 2: Questions involving theorems such as the FTC are better suited to the Calculus & Analysis marathon not this one.

(mod edit 7/6/17 by dan964)

===============================


This thread is for people to bombard with integrals that ARE allowed to stretch beyond the MX2 syllabus and into the world of real maths. And for me to spectate and join in later in the year.

I invite everyone to participate.

I will kick off with a VERY cliche question.

 
Last edited by a moderator:

omegadot

Active Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2015
Messages
230
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

This thread is for people to bombard with integrals that ARE allowed to stretch beyond the MX2 syllabus and into the world of real maths. And for me to spectate and join in later in the year.

I invite everyone to participate.

I will kick off with a VERY cliche question.



























 

InteGrand

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
6,109
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

Alternatively, use polar coordinates (the 'standard' approach I see that omegadot was alluding to).
 

InteGrand

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
6,109
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

ln(a + 1)
 

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

ln(a + 1)
Which follows from differentiating under the integral (Feynman's favourite integration trick):

 
Last edited:

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon



 

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

Apparently this trick wasn't taught too much back then haha.
Still isn't taught too much really, but it's pretty useful!

That's why I wrote that question like last month in the undergrad marathon about differentiating things of the form w.r.t. t, as that is just a strengthened form of the differentiation under the integral trick, where domains are also allowed to vary.

In fact there is also such a trick when the integral is instead over a time varying domain in R^n, and it is quite useful too.
 

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

One more before I wait for the ones already mentioned to be answered:

5.

i) Find an expression for the volume of an n-dimensional ball of radius r. (Hint: This is like computing volumes of 3-d solids in MX2 by slices, but the cross sections of n-balls are (n-1)-balls.)

ii) Let be the probability that a randomly selected* point in the unit n-ball has distance less than from the centre. Show that as , regardless of what is.

The perhaps surprising moral: Almost all of the mass of a high dimensional ball is concentrated near the boundary of this ball!

*Randomly w.r.t n-dimensional volume.
 
Last edited:

Drsoccerball

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
3,657
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2015
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

I feel like this thread should of been made about 9 months later when we (2015'ers) know what were doing.
 

leehuan

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 31, 2014
Messages
5,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

I feel like this thread should of been made about 9 months later when we (2015'ers) know what were doing.
Who cares, I'm pretty sure some other people will take advantage of this thread.
 
Last edited:

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

For 3, the swapping of order of integration is fine can be justified by your choice of the many variants of Fubini's/Tonelli's theorem. You don't need an especially powerful one because the function is smooth and absolutely integrable.

For 4, I think people should still attempt it / try other methods, as it is much less clear why "letting a=-i" should be valid. Letting a=-1 would give us something nonsensical for example. Definitely need to say something more to justify the formula being the same as that of the Gaussian integral (and why that particular choice of square root and not the other).
 

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,662
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

I'll post my own problem...



(The interchange of summation and integration being justified by the monotone convergence theorem, for example.)
 

Paradoxica

-insert title here-
Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
2,556
Location
Outside reality
Gender
Male
HSC
2016
Re: Extracurricular Integration Marathon

For 3, the swapping of order of integration is fine can be justified by your choice of the many variants of Fubini's/Tonelli's theorem. You don't need an especially powerful one because the function is smooth and absolutely integrable.

For 4, I think people should still attempt it / try other methods, as it is much less clear why "letting a=-i" should be valid. Letting a=-1 would give us something nonsensical for example. Definitely need to say something more to justify the formula being the same as that of the Gaussian integral (and why that particular choice of square root and not the other).
I think the solution had something to do with selecting the right branch of the square root function in the complex plane, which justifies the analytical continuation for Re(a)>0, and then taking the limit as a tends towards -i.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top