4.

2 Area under a Curve

A car is traveling so that its speed is never decreasing during a 12-second interval. The speed at
various moments in time is listed in the table below.

Time in Seconds 0 3 6 9 12
Speed in ft/sec 30 37 45 54 65

(a) Sketch a possible graph for this function.






(b) Estimate the distance traveled by the car during the 12 seconds by finding the areas of four
rectangles drawn at the heights of the left endpoints. This is called a left Riemann sum.









(c) Estimate the distance traveled by the car during the 12 seconds by finding the areas of four
rectangles drawn at the heights of the right endpoints. This is called a right Riemann sum.










(d) Estimate the distance traveled by the car during the 12 seconds by finding the areas of two
rectangles drawn at the heights of the midpoints. This is called a midpoint Riemann sum.



















Ex. Given the function y = x 2 + 1, estimate the area bounded by the graph of the curve and the x-
axis from x = 0 to x = 2 by using:
(a) a left Riemann sum with n = 4 equal subintervals







(b) a right Riemann sum with n = 4 equal subintervals








(c) a midpoint Riemann sum with n = 4 equal subintervals







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Ex. Water is flowing into a tank over a 12-hour period. The rate at which water is flowing into
the tank at various times is measured, and the results are given in the table below, where R ( t )
is measured in gallons per hour and t is measured in hours. The tank contains 150 gallons of
water when t = 0.

t (hours) 0 5 8 12
R ( t ) (gal/hr) 8 8.8 9.3 9.2

(a) Estimate the number of gallons of water in the tank at the end of 12 hours by using a left
Riemann sum with three subintervals and values from the table. Show the computations that
lead to your answer.






(b) Estimate the number of gallons of water in the tank at the end of 12 hours by using a right
Riemann sum with three subintervals and values from the table. Show the computations that
lead to your answer.