western50
Sep 8, 2010, 11:31 PM
how to integrate this
(sec x)(tan x)^2
galactus
Sep 9, 2010, 01:12 AM
\int sec(x)tan^{2}(x)dx
Rewrite:
\int (\underbrace{sec^{2}(x)-1}_{\text{tan^2(x)}})sec(x)dx
\int sec^{3}(x)dx-\int sec(x)dx
Now, integrate each one. The first one can be done by just using the reduction formula. The second is just ln|sec(x)+tan(x)|+C, and can be derived by letting u=sec(x)+tan(x), \;\ du=(sec^{2}(x)+sec(x)tan(x))dx
Reduction formula:
\int sec^{n}(x)dx=\frac{sec^{n-2}(x)tan(x)}{n-1}+\frac{n-2}{n-1}\int sec^{n-2}(x)dx
The reduction formula can be derived by using integration by parts.