Integration by parts (revision)

March 16, 2015

Integration by parts is a useful technique for evaluating integrals. The formula can be written as

f g 0 dx =f g f 0 gdx

This is the general form formula of integration by parts, which we can further simplify by making
the substitution:
u =f (x)
v =g(x)

such that
du =f 0 (x)dx
dv =g 0 (x)dx

Substituting the above expression into the formula yields

udv =uv vdu

Example 1: Evaluate the integral xe6x dx

Solution:
To use the integration by parts formula, we make the substitution

u=x dv = e6x dx
1 6x
du = dx v= e
6
Therefore, the integral is given by:

x 1 6x
xe6x dx = e6x e dx
6 6
x 1
= e6x e6x + c
6 36

Example 2: Evaluate the following integral w2 sin (10w) dw

Solution:
We make the following substitution:
u = w2 dv = sin (10w) dw
1
du = 2wdw v = cos (10w)
10

1
and using the integration by parts formula, gives:
 
1 1
w2 sin (10w) dw =w cos (10w) cos (10w) 2wdw
10 10

w2 w
= cos (10w) + cos (10w) dw + c
10 5
where c is an integration constant. The second integral on the right hand side requires another
integration by parts formula. Now, if we make the substitution
u=w dv = cos (10w) dw
1
du = dw v= sin (10w)
10
then the second integral on the right hand side becomes

w w 1
cos (10w) dw = sin (10w) sin (10w) dw
5 10 10
w 1
= sin (10w) + cos (10w) + d
10 100
where d is an integration constant. Replace this back into the original integral expression gives the
solution

w2 w 1
w2 sin (10w) dw = cos (10w) + sin (10w) + cos (10w) + E
10 50 500
where E = c + d .

Example 3: Evaluate the following integral x x + 1dx

Solution:
The following substitutions are made

u=x dv = x + 1dx
2 3
du = dx v = (x + 1) 2
3
From the integration by parts formula, we have

2 3 2 3
x x + 1dx = x(x + 1) 2 (x + 1) 2 dx
3 3
 
2 3 2 2 5
= x(x + 1) 2 (x + 1) 2 + c
3 3 5
2 3 4 5
= x(x + 1) 2 (x + 1) 2 + c
3 15
An alternative way of calculating this integral without using integration by parts formula is to make
the following substitution:
u =x + 1
du =dx

such that the integral becomes

x x + 1dx = (u 1) udu

3 1
= u 2 u 2 du
2 5 2 3
= u2 u2 + c
5 3

2
Replace the substitution for u into the expression above leads to

2 5 2 3
x x + 1dx = u 2 u 2 + c
5 3
2 5 2 3
= (x + 1) 2 (x + 1) 2 + c
5 3
You may note that the expression obtained are dierent when you used the two substitutions. How-
ever, you will be able to show that these two functions are in fact identical. I will leave this to you
to show that this is indeed the case.

Example 4: Evaluate the integral et cos (t) dt

Solution:
We make the following substitution:
u = cos (t) dv = et dt
du = sin (t) dt v = et

Substituting the above into the integration by parts formula yields:

t t
e cos (t) dt =e cos (t) + et sin (t) dt + c

The second integral on the right hand side can be evaluated by performing another integration by
parts. We do that by making the substitution
u = sin (t) dv = et dt
du = cos (t) dt v = et

We have

et cos (t) dt =et cos (t) + et sin (t) et cos (t) dt + c

You may now realize that the second integral on the right hand side requires ANOTHER integration
by parts, which will yield another integral that requires a further integration by parts. In fact, this
will happen innite number of times.
You may also notice that the second integral is on the right hand side has the same form as the
integral on the left hand side, which is the integral that we are interested to nd. By re-arranging
the integral above, we obtain:

2 et cos (t) dt =et cos (t) + et sin (t) + c

1 t
et cos (t) dt = e cos (t) + et sin (t) + c

2
which is the solution to the integral that we are interested.