Common Calculus Mistakes
Definite Integral

Some problems provide the opportunity for more than one mistake.


The Goal

Find

goal

The Mistakes

Find the mistakes:

1.

mistake

(Roll the mouse over the math to see a hint in red)

2.

mistake

(Roll the mouse over the math to see a hint in red)


A Correct Solution

correction

(Roll the mouse over the area above to see the corrections in blue)


Explanations

In the first mistake the antiderivative is computed incorrectly - the negative sign is needed.

In the second mistake a common sign error is made. If F(x) is an antiderivative of the integrand (the function in the integral), the value of the definite integral from a to b is F(b)-F(a), which applies even if F(x) has a minus sign in front of it. So if F(x) = -e-x, then F(b)-F(a) = (-e-b) - (-e-a) = e-a - e-b.

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