Hi
I'm taking integral calculus and we just did the fundamental theorem, but I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around thinking of how to get antiderivatives when it comes to relatively complicated functions.
For instance, how would you go about thinking of an antiderivative for something like this
sqrt(3/x)
Is it just 2/3(3/x)^3/2
?
I'm not quite sure what you're asking for. If it's for the answer to something like the exalple you made:
y = sqrt(3/x)
You can rewrite this as follows:
y = sqrt(3) * sqrt(1/x)
Which can then be rewritten as:
y = sqrt(3) * x^(-1/2)
Since the square root involves raising a function to (1/2) and an inverse function is just raising it to -1. Now I'll just pretend this is a derivative:
(dy/dx) = sqrt(3) * x^(-1/2)
dy = [sqrt(3) * x^(-1/2)]dx
Integral(dy) = sqrt(3) * 2 * x^(1/2) + C
Since by default, you add 1 to the previous power and divide by the new resulting power, you divide by (1/2), which is just multiplying by 2.
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But if you're asking for how derivatives work in general, consider the purpose of derivatives. They allow one to determine the instantaneous rate of change at any given point on a function. Now, let's look at the graph of the example you gave:
Let's just say we'll be taking the integral from the value when x=0 to when it equals 1. You can take the area of an arbitrarily small rectangle at any given point (so small, it looks like a line), which just involves length * width. The width will be the value pumped out by the function at that point, while we'll just call the height dx.
This would be useless in of itself, since we don't know what dx means. But, when you take every single rectangle that can exist from 0 to 1, you get something that looks like the area under the particular curve. Basically, since the sum of all of those rectangles involving dx is the as the area, we just need to scoop them all up with our nets forged from the fires of Sohcahtoa.
As for why the integral of two functions is the difference between the two, take a look at this:
The black lines represent two functions, where the first is f(x) and the second is g(x). Each is going to have their own areas, represented by the blue and red sections, respectively. When you take the integral between two curves, you take the area of the lesser one and subtract it from the area of the greater one.
The remaining portion would then be the new area generated by the function.
Hope I helped you, whatever you meant by your question!.