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16.1TheAntiderivative
Theantiderivativeisthenamewesometimes,(rarely)givetotheoperationthatgoesbackwardfromthederivativeofa
functiontothefunctionitself.Sincethederivativedoesnotdeterminethefunctioncompletely(youcanaddanyconstantto
yourfunctionandthederivativewillbethesame),youhavetoaddadditionalinformationtogobacktoanexplicitfunctionas
antiderivative.

Thuswesometimessaythattheantiderivativeofafunctionisafunctionplusanarbitraryconstant.Thustheantiderivativeof
cosxis(sinx)+c.

Themorecommonnamefortheantiderivativeistheindefiniteintegral.Thisistheidenticalnotion,merelyadifferentname
forit.

Awavylineisusedasasymbolforit.Thusthesentence"theantiderivativeofcosxis(sinx)+c"isusuallystatedas:the
indefiniteintegralofcosxis(sinx)+c,andthisisgenerallywrittenas

Actuallythisisbadnotation.Thevariablexthatoccursontherightisavariableandrepresentstheargumentofthesine
function.Thesymbolsontheleftmerelysaythatthefunctionwhoseantiderivativewearelookingforisthecosinefunction.
Youwillavoidconfusionifyouexpressthisusinganentirelydifferentsymbol(sayy)onthelefttodenotethis.Theproper
waytowritethisisthen

Whyusethispeculiaranduglynotation?

Wedosooutofrespectfortradition.Thisisthenotationpeoplehaveusedforcenturies.Wewillseewhytheydidsointhe
nextsection.

Thefirstquestionweaddressis:ifyougivemeafunction,sayg,andaskmetofinditsindefiniteintegral,howdoIdoit?

Thebasicanswertothisquestionis:therearenonewgimmicksfordoingthis.Youcanworkbackwardsfromtherulesfor
differentiation,andgetsomerulesforintegration,andthatisessentiallyallyoucando.Butthatallowsyoutointegrate(find
theantiderivativeof)lotsofusefulfunctions.

Theantiderivativeofasumofseveraltermsisthesumoftheirantiderivatives.Thisfollowsfromthefactthatthederivativeof
asumisthesumofthederivativesoftheterms.Andsimilarly,multiplyingafunctionbyaconstantmultipliesits
antiderivativebythesameconstant.

Usingthesefactswecanfindtheantiderivativeofanypolynomial.

How?

Thefactthatthederivativeof isequivalenttothestatementthattheantiderivativeof .This

meansthattheantiderivativeof .(Thecisadifferentcineachantiderivativeitistheretosignifythatyou

canaddanyconstanttoanantiderivativeandgetanotherone.)

Wecanapplythistoeachterminapolynomial,andfinditsantiderivative.

Thus,theantiderivativeof

3x34x2x+7

is
Studentstypicallyfindthissoeasythatwhentheyareforcedtodofindsuchanantiderivativeonatest,oftentheirmindsare
alreadyfocusedonthenextquestion,andtheyabsentmindedlyforgetanddifferentiateinsteadofantidifferentiatingoneor
perhapsallterms.Pleaseavoidthiserror.

Exercises:

Findantiderivativesofeachofthefollowingfunctions:

16.1x33x2+6

16.2cos(x)

16.3sin(2x)

16.4exp(2x)

16.5x1/2

(checkyouranswerbydifferentiatingit.)

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