Integratin &#x222B;<!-- ∫ --> tan 3 </msup> &#x2061;<!-- ⁡ --> ( x

dokezwa17

dokezwa17

Answered question

2022-05-31

Integratin tan 3 ( x ) d x in two different ways gives two different answers
I was trying to find the antiderivative of a function tan 3 ( x ) d x.
However, due to substitution differences, my book has a answer of 1 2 tan 2 ( x ) + ln ( cos x ) + C while I got an answer 1 2 sec 2 ( x ) + ln ( cos x ) + C.
The problem is what to substitute in tan x sec 2 x d x. The book puts tan x = z, while I put sec x = z. I don't know if both are correct. If they are, can all functions have multiple antiderivatives?

Answer & Explanation

sepolturamo

sepolturamo

Beginner2022-06-01Added 14 answers

Step 1
The functions sec 2 x and tan 2 x differ by a constant. This means that when you have sec 2 x plus a constant, it can always be turned into an expression containing tan 2 x plus another constant and vice versa. For example:
sec 2 x + 5 = ( tan 2 x + 1 ) + 5 = tan 2 x + 6.
More generally:
sec 2 x + C 1 = ( tan 2 x + 1 ) + C 1 = tan 2 x + C 2 .
In your case:
1 2 tan 2 x + ln cos x + C = 1 2 ( sec 2 x + 1 ) + ln cos x + C = 1 2 sec 2 x + 1 2 + ln cos x + C = 1 2 sec 2 x + ln cos x + ( 1 2 + C ) = 1 2 sec 2 x + ln cos x + C 1 .
Since C 1 is just another constant, they still use C to denote that.
Denisse Valdez

Denisse Valdez

Beginner2022-06-02Added 5 answers

Step 1
When evaluating indefinite integrals, there's no such thing as an incorrect substitution, just one that won't help much. Sometimes, more than one helpful option exists. If we try evaluating tan x sec 2 x d x with z = tan x, we get z d z = 1 2 z 2 + C = 1 2 tan 2 x + C, so you might call this a useful substitution. The substitution z = sec x proves equally helpful (but your textbook was hardly going to solve the problem twice!), with the integral becoming z d z = 1 2 z 2 + K = 1 2 sec 2 x + K.
Step 2
If you equate the two antiderivatives from these approaches, you of course get C = 1 2 + K from sec 2 x = tan 2 x + 1, so the results don't disagree at all. (Comparing results for tan 3 x also requires you to use this identity.)

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