Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Integral involving inverse trig functions. Please help! Final is tomorrow!?

I can't seem to find an example of how to solve this in my lecture notes. Here's the question:

Integral of...

sin(3x) / (16 + cos^2(3x))

The answer I'm given on the review sheet is:

(-1/12) * arctan(cos(3x)/4)) + C

I see how the arctan part shows up because of the usual integral, but I can't seem to figure out what to do with the sin(3x) on top to get to that answer. What am I missing here?

3 Answers

Relevance
  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    i) Let cos(3x) = t; differentiating, -3sin(3x) d x= dt

    ==> sin(3x) dx = -dt/3

    ii) So integral changes to: (-1/3)∫dt/(16 + t²) = (-1/3)*(1/4)*tan⁻¹(t/4) + C

    [Application of ∫dx/(a² + x²) = (1/a)*tan⁻¹(x/a) + C]

    Replacing the t from the substitution,

    Answer: (-1/12)*tan⁻¹{cos(3x)/4} + C

  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    Integral {sin (3x) dx / (16 + cos²(3x)}

    Put cos (3x) = 4 tan α ---------- (1)

    Differentiating, - 3sin (3x) dx = 4sec² α dα

    => sin (3x) dx = - (4/3) sec² α dα

    => Numerator = N = - (4/3) sec² α dα -------- (2)

    Denominator = D = 16 + 16 tan² α = 16(1 + tan² α) = 16sec² α -------- (3)

    Now the integral reduces to :

    {-(4/3)/16} * Integral {sec² α dα / sec² α}

    = (- 1/12) * Integral dα ---------

    = (- 1/12) α + C , where C is an arbitrary constant. ------ (4)

    From (1), tan α = cos (3x) / 4

    => α = arc tan {cos(3x) / 4}

    Hence, the value of the Integral = (- 1/12) arc tan {(cos3x / 4)} + C

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    The complicated exponential version of ArcTan(x) is: (a million/2) i (Log(a million - i x) - Log(a million + i x)) The imperative of this is (a million/2) x i (Log(a million - i x) - Log(a million + i x)) - (a million/2) Log(a million + x²) however the 1st 2 words is quite x ArcTan(x), so as that the respond is: x ArcTan(x) - (a million/2) Log(a million + x²)

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.