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Physics LibreTexts

3.3: Integration by Parts

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If the integrand consists of two factors, and you know the antiderivative of one of the factors, you can integrate by parts by shifting the derivative onto the other factor: badxf(x)dgdx=[f(x)g(x)]babadfdxg(x). The first term on the right hand side is a constant denoting [f(a)g(a)f(b)g(b)]. Hopefully, the integral in the second term is easier to solve than the original integral.

Judicious use of integration by parts is a key step for solving many integrals. For example, consider badxxeγx. The integrand consists of two factors, x and eγx; we happen to know the antiderivative of both factors. Integrating by parts lets us replace one of these factors with its antiderivative, while applying an additional derivative on the other factor. The smart thing to do is to apply the derivative on the x factor, and the antiderivative on the eγx: badxxeγx=[xeγxγ]babadxeγxγ=[xeγxγeγxγ2]ba. Whenever we finish doing an integral, it is good practice to double-check the result by making sure the dimensions match up. Note that γ has units of inverse x, so the integral on the left-hand side has units of x2. The solution on the right hand side has two terms, with units x/γ and 1/γ2; both of these are equivalent to units of x2, which is what we need!


This page titled 3.3: Integration by Parts is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Y. D. Chong via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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