AQA Core 2 Calculus

1 of 2 15/01/13 MEI
Section 3: The trapezium rule

Notes and Examples

These notes contain subsections on:
- The trapezium rule


The trapezium rule

Not all functions can be integrated. For functions which cannot be integrated,
you can find an approximate value for a definite integral by using a numerical
method such as the trapezium rule. In this method, the area under the graph
can be approximated by dividing it into a number of trapezia.















If the trapezia have width h, and the y-coordinates are y
1
, y
2
, , y
n,
then the
total area A is:
( )
0 1 2 1
2 ...
2
n n
h
A y y y y y

~ + + + + + (

where
( ) b a
h
n

= .


Example 1
(i) Use the trapezium rule with: (a) 3 strips and (b) 6 strips, to find the
approximate value of
3
0
1 d +
}
x x .
(ii) Given that the exact value of this integral is
14
3
, find the relative error in each
case, and explain why the trapezium rule is an under-estimate of the true
value.

O h a b
y
0
y
1
y
2
y
3
y
n

AQA C2 Calculus 3 Notes and Examples
2 of 2 15/01/13 MEI
Solution
(i) (a) With 3 strips of width h = 1:





( )
1
2
1 2 2 2 3 4.646264... A
(
~ + + + =



(b) With 6 strips of width h = 0.5:




( )
1
4
1 2 2 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4.661488... A
(
~ + + + + + + =



(ii) (a) relative error =
14
3
14
3
4.646264
= 0.00437

(b) relative error =
14
3
14
3
4.661488
= 0.00111

From the graph of the function, it is clear that the trapezia lie underneath the curve, so
the trapezium rule gives an under-estimate.














You can see more examples like this one using the Flash resource The
trapezium rule.

You can also use the Geogebra resource The trapezium rule to see the
result of applying the trapezium rule with different numbers of strips.


-1
-1 0 1 2 3
x 0 1 2 3
y 1
2 3
2

x 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
y 1
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
2