Suppose we want to calculate the iterated integral

Z 3 Z 2 
2xy − 4x + 2y dy dx.
0 0

Our first step is to evaluate the inner integral with respect to y. Since x is a
constant of integration, we can calculate it as
2

xy 2 − 4xy + y 2

= x(2)2 − 4x(2) + (2) 2

− x(0)2 − 4x(0) + (0)2

= −4x + 4.
Now all we need to do is evaluate the outer integral, which is now
Z 3
−4x + 4 dx
0

= −2x2 + 4x

= (−2(3)2 + 4(3)) − (−2(0)2 + 4(0))

= −6.
An interesting thing to notice is that the answer to this integral is the same as
that in the previous example. This makes sense since when the bounds change,
the differentials move with them – dx is on the outside when the interval [0, 3]
is, and the same applies to dy. This is important because the differential
determines which variable the bounds apply to, so as long as the two stay
”together,” the end result will be the same, just the order of integration will
change.
What if we switch just the bounds while keeping the differentials in place,
instead calculating Z 2 Z 3 
2xy − 4x + 2y dy dx.
0 0
We can begin with the same first step of calculating our inner integral, while
paying attention to the different bounds. This gives us
3

xy 2 − 4xy + y 2

= x(3)2 − 4x(3) + (3) 2

− x(0)2 − 4x(0) + (0)2

1
 = −3x + 9.
Now just as before, we can evaluate the outer integral, but this time as
Z 2
−3x + 9 dx
0

2
 
3 2
− x + 9x
2
0
   
3 3
= − (2)2 + 9(2) − − (0)2 + 9(0)
2 2
= 12.