Solved example of integrals by partial fraction expansion
Rewrite the fraction $\frac{1}{x\left(x+1\right)}$ in $2$ simpler fractions using partial fraction decomposition
Find the values for the unknown coefficients: $A, B$. The first step is to multiply both sides of the equation from the previous step by $x\left(x+1\right)$
Multiplying polynomials
Simplifying
Assigning values to $x$ we obtain the following system of equations
Proceed to solve the system of linear equations
Rewrite as a coefficient matrix
Reducing the original matrix to a identity matrix using Gaussian Elimination
The integral of $\frac{1}{x\left(x+1\right)}$ in decomposed fraction equals
Expand the integral $\int\left(\frac{1}{x}+\frac{-1}{x+1}\right)dx$ into $2$ integrals using the sum rule for integrals, to then solve each integral separately
We can solve the integral $\int\frac{-1}{x+1}dx$ by applying integration by substitution method (also called U-Substitution). First, we must identify a section within the integral with a new variable (let's call it $u$), which when substituted makes the integral easier. We see that $x+1$ it's a good candidate for substitution. Let's define a variable $u$ and assign it to the choosen part
Differentiate both sides of the equation $u=x+1$
Find the derivative
The derivative of a sum of two or more functions is the sum of the derivatives of each function
The derivative of the constant function ($1$) is equal to zero
The derivative of the linear function is equal to $1$
Now, in order to rewrite $dx$ in terms of $du$, we need to find the derivative of $u$. We need to calculate $du$, we can do that by deriving the equation above
Substituting $u$ and $dx$ in the integral and simplify
The integral of the inverse of the lineal function is given by the following formula, $\displaystyle\int\frac{1}{x}dx=\ln(x)$
The integral $\int\frac{1}{x}dx$ results in: $\ln\left(x\right)$
The integral of the inverse of the lineal function is given by the following formula, $\displaystyle\int\frac{1}{x}dx=\ln(x)$
Replace $u$ with the value that we assigned to it in the beginning: $x+1$
The integral $\int\frac{-1}{u}du$ results in: $-\ln\left(x+1\right)$
Gather the results of all integrals
As the integral that we are solving is an indefinite integral, when we finish integrating we must add the constant of integration $C$
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