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PartialFractions
Inthissectionwearegoingtotakealookatintegralsofrationalexpressionsofpolynomialsandonceagain
letsstartthissectionoutwithanintegralthatwecanalreadydosowecancontrastitwiththeintegralsthat
wellbedoinginthissection.
So,ifthenumeratoristhederivativeofthedenominator(oraconstantmultipleofthederivativeofthe
denominator)doingthiskindofintegralisfairlysimple.However,oftenthenumeratorisntthederivativeof
thedenominator(oraconstantmultiple).Forexample,considerthefollowingintegral.
Inthiscasethenumeratorisdefinitelynotthederivativeofthedenominatornorisitaconstantmultipleofthe
derivativeofthedenominator.Therefore,thesimplesubstitutionthatweusedabovewontwork.However,if
wenoticethattheintegrandcanbebrokenupasfollows,
thentheintegralisactuallyquitesimple.
Thisprocessoftakingarationalexpressionanddecomposingitintosimplerrationalexpressionsthatwecan
addorsubtracttogettheoriginalrationalexpressioniscalledpartialfractiondecomposition.Many
integralsinvolvingrationalexpressionscanbedoneifwefirstdopartialfractionsontheintegrand.
So,letsdoaquickreviewofpartialfractions.Wellstartwitharationalexpressionintheform,
wherebothP(x)andQ(x)arepolynomialsandthedegreeofP(x)issmallerthanthedegreeofQ(x).Recall
thatthedegreeofapolynomialisthelargestexponentinthepolynomial.Partialfractionscanonlybedoneif
thedegreeofthenumeratorisstrictlylessthanthedegreeofthedenominator.Thatisimportanttoremember.
So,oncewevedeterminedthatpartialfractionscanbedonewefactorthedenominatorascompletelyas
possible.Thenforeachfactorinthedenominatorwecanusethefollowingtabletodeterminetheterm(s)we
pickupinthepartialfractiondecomposition.
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcII/PartialFractions.aspx 1/1