INTRO: Integration
From calculus, we know that the integral of a function f(x) from
a to b can be approximated by thinking of the integral as the area
under the curve.
So we can divide the interval [a,b] into subintervals, and using
each subinterval as a base, draw a rectangle that intersects the
curve, perhaps using the left or right endpoint, or the midpoint of
the subinterval, to determine how high to draw the rectangle.
Such a process can be automated. We will look at several ways to
estimate an integral this way.
Your homework programming assignment will require you to
compute a sequence of integral estimates, using more and more
subintervals.
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