MA 101

Tutorial-11

1. Consider a monotone function f (x) defined on [a, b]. Suppose you want to calculate the definite
integral of the function f (x) in [a, b] using the right Riemann sums AR with n equispaced intervals.
The right Riemann sum amounts to an underestimation if the function is monotonically decreasing,
and an overestimation if it is monotonically increasing. Then, prove that the error is:

b
(b − a)2
Z
| f (x) dx − AR | < M1 (1)
a 2n
Here M1 is the maximum value of the absolute value of f 0 (x) on the interval.

2. Find the definite integrals using Riemann sum:

R π/2
a. 0
sin x dx
R2
b. 0
2x dx

3. Discuss the extreme-value behaviour of the function f (x) = x sin(1/x), x 6= 0. How many
critical points does this function have? Where are they located on the x-axis? Does the function
have an absolute minimum? An absolute maximum?

4. Identify the inflection points and local maxima and minima of the functions:

a. sin |x|, −2π ≤ x ≤ 2π

√
b. 2 cos x − 2x, −π ≤ x ≤ 3π/2

5. Prove the mean value theorem for the integrals: If f (x) is continuous over an interval [a, b],
1
Rb
then there is at least one point c ∈ [a, b] such that f (c) = b−a a
f (x)dx.

Find the average value of the function f (x) = 8 − 2x over the interval [0, 4] and find c such that f (c)
equals the average value of the function over [0, 4] .

6. The Riemann sum provides a useful way to numerically integrate functions. One such algorithm
which is widely used is called the Simpson’s 31 rule. The idea is to evaluate the definite integral
of an integratable function f (x) on [a, b] by approximating it as a quadratic polynomial in a sub
interval.
Simpson’s Rule is based on the fact that given any three points, you can find the equation of a
quadratic through those points. If you want to integrate f (x) over the interval from a to b, find

1
f (a), f (b), and f (m) where m is the midpoint of the interval. Then, find a quadratic P (x) that goes
through the same three points. Because quadratics are easy to integrate, you could just integrate
the quadratic over the interval. It ends up being a very good approximation.

Show, using usual rules of integration that the integral of the quadratic over [a, b] is given by

Z b
h
P (x) dx = (f (a) + 4f (m) + f (b)) (2)
a 3
where h = (b − a)/2. Then, as per Simpson’s 1/3 rule for n = 2 sub intervals, we approximate the
original integrals as,

Z b
h
f (x) dx ≈ (f (a) + 4f (m) + f (b)) (3)
a 3

Discuss, how you will extend the rule to n = 4 intervals.

Approximate the area under the curve y = 2x between x = −2 and x = 2 and using Simpson’s Rule
with n = 4 subintervals.