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LESSON 2: ANTIDIFFERENTIATION BY SUBSTITUTION RULE AND BY TABLE
OF INTEGRALS
Most Essential Learning Competencies:
Compute the antiderivative of a function using substitution rule.
A. Lesson 1: Antidifferentiation by Substitution
❖ Introduction
Antidifferentiation is more challenging than differentiation. To find the derivative of a given
function, there are well-established rules that are always applicable to differentiable functions. For
antidifferentiation, the antiderivatives given in the previous lesson may not suffice to integrate a given
function.
A prerequisite is knowledge of the basic antidifferentiation formulas. Some formulas are easily
derived, but most of them need to be memorized.
No hard and fast rules can be given as to which method applies in a given situation. In college,
several techniques such as integration by parts, partial fractions, trigonometric substitution will be
introduced. This lesson focuses on the most basic technique – antidifferentiation by substitution - which
is the inverse of the Chain Rule in differentiation.
There are occasions when it is possible to perform a difficult piece of integration by first making a
substitution. This has the effect of changing the variable and the integrand. The ability to carry out
integration by substitution is a skill that develops with practice and experience, but sometimes a sensible
substitution may not lead to an integral that can be evaluated. We must then be prepared to try out
alternative substitutions.
Suppose we are given an integral of the form ∫ 𝑓(𝑔(𝑥)) · 𝑔′ (𝑥)𝑑𝑥. We can transform this into
another form by changing the independent variable x to u using the substitution u = g(x). In this case,
𝑑𝑢
= 𝑔′(𝑥 )𝑑𝑥. Therefore,
𝑑𝑥
∫ 𝑓(𝑔(𝑥)) · 𝑔′ (𝑥)𝑑𝑥 = ∫ 𝑓(𝑢)𝑑𝑢.
This change of variable is one of the most important tools available to us. This technique is called
integration by substitution. It is often important to guess what will be the useful substitution.
Usually, we make a substitution for a function whose derivative also occurs in the integrand.
❖ Using The Substitution Rule
Example 1. Evaluate
Solution: Notice that the integrand is in the fifth power of the expression (x + 4). To tackle this
problem, we make a substitution. We let u = x + 4. The point of doing this is to change the integrand
into a much simpler u5. However, we must take care to substitute appropriately for the term dx too.
𝑑𝑢
Now, since u = x + 4 it follows that = 1 and so du = dx. So, substituting (x + 4) and dx we have
𝑑𝑥
∫ (𝑥 + 4)5 𝑑𝑥 = ∫ 𝑢5 𝑑𝑢
𝑢6
The resulting integral can be evaluated immediately to give + 𝐶. Recalling that u = x + 4, we
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have
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An alternative way of finding the antiderivative above is to expand the expression in the integrand
and antidifferentiate the resulting polynomial (of degree 5) term by term. We will NOT do this.
Obviously, the solution in Example 1 is simpler than the mentioned alternative.
Example 2. Evaluate
Solution: If we let 𝑢 = 𝑥 5 + 2, then 𝑑𝑢 = 5𝑥 4 𝑑𝑥, which is precisely the other factor in the
integrand. Thus, in terms of the variable u, this is essentially just a power rule integration.
That is,
Again, the alternative way is to expand out the expression in the integrand, and integrate the
resulting polynomial (of degree 49) term by term. Again, we would rather NOT do this.
Example 3. Evaluate ∫ (5𝑥2 + 1)4 2x 𝑑𝑥,
Solution: If We let 𝑢 = 5𝑥 2 + 1, then 𝑑𝑢 = 10𝑥 𝑑𝑥 = 5(2𝑥) 𝑑𝑥
1
∫ (5𝑥2 + 1)4 2x 𝑑𝑥 = ∫ u4 du
5
1 𝑢5
= +𝑐
5 5
2
5𝑥 +1
= +𝑐
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Example 4: Evaluate
𝑑𝑢
Solution: In this example, we let u = 1 + z3 so that = 3𝑧 2 . If u = 1 + z3, then we need to
𝑑𝑧
express z2 dz in the integrand in terms of du or a constant multiple of du.
Example 5: Evaluate
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Solution: Notice that if u = x2 – 1. Then du = 2xdx. This implies that 𝑥𝑑𝑥 = 𝑑𝑢, so we have
2
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Example 6: Evaluate
Solution:
Lesson 2 Practice Activity 1
Directions: Evaluate the following integrals (Group of 3-4 members).
3𝑥 5
1. ∫(8𝑥 3 + 2𝑥 2 )7 (6𝑥 2 + 𝑥)𝑑𝑥 2. ∫ 𝑑𝑥
√𝑥 3 +5
We recall the theorem we stated in the previous lesson.
Theorem 14. (Theorems on integrals yielding the exponential and logarithmic functions)
1.
2.
3.
Example 7:
Solution:
Solution:
Solution:
Example 8:
Solution: Observe that if we make the substitution u = 4x + 3, the integrand will contain a much
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simpler form, cos u, which we can easily integrate. So, if u = 4x + 3, then du = 4 dx and 𝑑𝑥 = 𝑑𝑢.
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So,
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Example 9:
Solution: Note that if we let u = sin x, its derivative is du = cos x dx which is the other factor in the
integrand and our integral becomes
Alternative solution to the problem: If we let u = cos x, then du = − sin x dx which is also the other
factor in the integrand. Even if the integral
looks different from the above answer, we can easily show that the two answers are indeed equal
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with by using the trigonometric identity sin 2 x + cos2 x = 1. In this case, C2 = C1 + .
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Example 10:
Solution: We let u = sin x so that the other factor in the integrand cos x dx = du. Thus, the integral
becomes
Integrals of other Trigonometric Functions:
Example 11:
Solution:
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Example 12:
Solution:
Integrals of Inverse Circular Functions:
= (1.1)
= (2.1)
= (3.1)
Example 13:
Solution: From Formula (1.1) with a = 3, we write this into
Example 14:
Solution: Let u = 3x, du = 3 dx. Then from Formula (2.1),
Example 15:
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Solution: Let u = ln x, 𝑑𝑢 = 𝑑𝑥. Then from Formula (3.1)
𝑥
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Example 16:
Solution: Observe that by completing the squares, and Formula (1.1)
Let u = x – 4, du = dx. Then
Summary/Table of Integrals
