Substitution

The motivating example for this section will be the integral shown below.

\int \sec^2(x)e^{1 + \tan{x}} \, dx

The techniques shown in the last section don’t work here. Linearity does not allow for separation of products, and we don’t have an identity which gets us a solution. In order to solve these types of integrals, we’ll need a new rule.

Example (Substitution)

The integral can be rewrote if one makes the following substitution.

u = 1 + \tan^2x

Then computing the differential

du = \sec^2x \,dx

We can put these terms into the integral and obtain

\int e^{u} \, du

Which clearly evaluates to

\int e^{u} \, du = e^u + C

And then undoing the substitution

\int \sec^2(x)e^{1 + \tan{x}} \, dx = e^{1+\tan x} + C

Substitution can often be thought of as undoing chain rule, by substituting the interior function.

Definition (Substitution rule)

The substitution rule gives

\int f(g(x))g^\prime(x)\, dx = \int f(u)\, du, \text{where } u = g(x).

The biggest problem is identitfying the function to substitute. There is no general way of identifying which function in the integrand needs to be substituted.

Problems

This will be a large collection of problems, giving lots of examples for how we choose our substitutions to turn our integral back into an explicit form.

Integrals with Inverse power rule

Problem 50

Evaluate the following integral \int (2x + 4)(x^2 + 4x + 3)^3 \, dx

Problem 51

Evaluate the following integral \int (2x+3)\sqrt{x^2 + 3x} \, dx

Problem 52

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{3x^2}{(x^3 + 2)^{7/2}} \, dx

Problem 53

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{x}{\sqrt{1-2x^2}} \, dx

Integrals with Logarithms and Exponents

Problem 54

Evaluate the following integral \int 2x \cos (x^2) e^{\sin (x^2)} \, dx

Problem 55

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{-3x^2}{e^{x^3 + 2}} \, dx

Problem 56

Evaluate the following integral \int e^x e^{e^x} \, dx

Problem 57

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{x}{x^2 + a} \, dx

Problem 58

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{x^2}{x^3 + a} \, dx

Problem 59

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{1}{x \ln x} \, dx

Problem 60

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{e^x}{1 + e^x} \, dx

Problem 61

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{\sec^2 x}{1 + \tan x} \, dx

Integrals with Trigonometric Functions

Problem 62

Evaluate the following integral \int x \sin x^2 \, dx

Problem 63

Evaluate the following integral \int x \cos (x^2 + 1) \, dx

Problem 64

Evaluate the following integral \int \tan x \, dx

Problem 65

Evaluate the following integral \int \cot x \, dx

Problem 66

Evaluate the following integral \int \sec x \, dx

Problem 67

Evaluate the following integral \int \csc x \, dx

Problem 68

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{1}{x^2 + a^2} \, dx

Problem 69

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{1}{\sqrt{a^2 - x^2}} \, dx

Problem 70

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{1}{x\sqrt{x^2 - a^2}} \, dx

Problem 71

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{\arctan x}{x^2 + 1} \, dx

Problem 72

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{\arcsin x}{\sqrt{1 - x^2}} \, dx

Problem 73

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{\text{arcsec}\, x}{x\sqrt{x^2 - 1}} \, dx

Problem 74

Evaluate the following integral \int \tanh x \, dx

Problem 75

Evaluate the following integral \int \text{coth} \, x \, dx

Problem 76

Evaluate the following integral \int \text{sech} \, x \, dx

Problem 77

Evaluate the following integral \int \text{csch} \, x \, dx

Problem 78

Evaluate the following integral \int \frac{e^x}{1 - e^{2x}} \, dx

Special problems

Problem 79 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus - 5.3.1)

Evaluate the following integral

\int {{\left( {8x - 12} \right){{\left( {4{x^2} - 12x} \right)}^4}\,dx}}

Using the substitution

u = 4x^2 - 12x

We get \int {{\left( {8x - 12} \right){{\left( {4{x^2} - 12x} \right)}^4}\,dx}} = \frac{1}{5}(4x^2 - 12x)^5 + C

Problem 80 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus - 5.3.2)

Evaluate the following integral

\int{{3{t^{ - 4}}{{\left( {2 + 4{t^{ - 3}}} \right)}^{ - 7}}\,dt}}

Using the substitution

u = 2 - 4t^{-3}

We get \int{{3{t^{ - 4}}{{\left( {2 + 4{t^{ - 3}}} \right)}^{ - 7}}\,dt}} = \frac{1}{24}(2+4t^{-3})^{-6} + C

Problem 81 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus - 5.3.14)

Evaluate the following integral

\int \frac{\csc x \cot c}{2- \csc x} \, dx

First notice how \csc x \cot x is the derivative of -\csc x. This leads us to try some form of \csc x for u. I use

u = 2 - \csc x

Leading too \int \frac{\csc x \cot c}{2- \csc x} \, dx = - \int \frac{1}{u} \, du

Which is then

\int \frac{\csc x \cot c}{2- \csc x} \, dx = \ln |u| + C = \ln |2 - \csc x| + C

Problem 82 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus - 5.3.13)

Evaluate the following integral

\int{{10\sin \left( {2x} \right)\cos \left( {2x} \right)\sqrt {{{\cos }^2}\left( {2x} \right) - 5} \,dx}}

While the integral looks incredibly complex, if we substitute the term inside the radical (the usual choice) we can start to break it down.

u = \cos^2(2x) - 5

Thus \int{{10\sin \left( {2x} \right)\cos \left( {2x} \right)\sqrt {{{\cos }^2}\left( {2x} \right) - 5} \,dx}} = -\frac{5}{2} \int \sqrt{u} \, du

Which leads too

\int{{10\sin \left( {2x} \right)\cos \left( {2x} \right)\sqrt {{{\cos }^2}\left( {2x} \right) - 5} \,dx}} = -\frac{5}{3}(\cos^2(2x) - 5)^\frac{3}{2} + C

Problem 83 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus - 5.4.6)

Evaluate the following integral

\int{{20{{e}^{2 - 8w}}\sqrt {1 + {{e}}^{2 - 8w}}} \, + 7{w^3} - 6\,\,\sqrt[3]{w}\,dw}

Using linearity on the integral allows us to do different substitutions. Seeing as the last two terms can be integrated with the inverse power rule, we only need to a substitution on the first term. Luckily this is an easy case.

u = 1 + e^{2-8w}

Gives

\int{{20{{e}^{2 - 8w}}\sqrt {1 + {{e}}^{2 - 8w}}} \,dw} = -\frac{5}{2}\int \sqrt{u}\, du

Which is

\int{{20{{e}^{2 - 8w}}\sqrt {1 + {{e}}^{2 - 8w}}} \,dw} = -\frac{5}{3}(1 + e^{2-8w})^\frac{3}{2} + C

Then solving the other terms gives us our solution.

= -\frac{5}{3}(1 + e^{2-8w})^\frac{3}{2} + \frac{7}{4}w^4 - \frac{9}{2}w^\frac{4}{3} + C

Problem 84 - Pauls Online Notes (Calculus II - A7.1.18)

Evaluate the following integral

\int{{\frac{{{x^7}}}{{\sqrt {{x^4} + 1} }}\,dx}}

Using the substitution

u = x^4 + 1

We get

\int{{\frac{{{x^7}}}{{\sqrt {{x^4} + 1} }}\,dx}} = \frac{1}{4}\int \frac{u - 1}{\sqrt{u}}

Which we can then apply linearity and inverse power rule to, giving us

\int{{\frac{{{x^7}}}{{\sqrt {{x^4} + 1} }}\,dx}} = \frac{1}{4}\left( \frac{2}{3}(x^4 + 1)^\frac{3}{2} + 2(x^4 + 1)^\frac{1}{2}\right) + C