How I Impressed My Wife: Part 5b

Amazingly, the integral below has a simple solution:

Q = \displaystyle \int_0^{2\pi} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + 2 a \sin x \cos x + (a^2 + b^2) \sin^2 x} = \displaystyle \frac{2\pi}{|b|}.

Even more amazingly, the integral Q ultimately does not depend on the parameter a. For several hours, I tried to figure out a way to demonstrate that Q is independent of a, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do this without substantially simplifying the integral, but I’ve been unable to do so (at least so far).

So here’s what I have been able to develop to prove that Q is independent of a without directly computing the integral Q.

green lineEarlier in this series, I showed that

Q = 2 \displaystyle \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + 2 a \sin x \cos x + (a^2 + b^2) \sin^2 x}

= 2 \displaystyle \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{\sec^2 x dx}{1 + 2 a \tan x + (a^2 + b^2) \tan^2 x}

= 2 \displaystyle \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{du}{1 + 2 a u + (a^2+b^2) u^2}

= \displaystyle \frac{2}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{dv}{v^2 + \displaystyle \frac{b^2}{(a^2+b^2)^2} }

= \displaystyle 2 \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{(a^2+ b^2) dv}{(a^2 + b^2) v^2 + b^2 }

Yesterday, I showed used the substitution w = (a^2 + b^2) v to show that Q was independent of a. Today, I’ll use a different method to establish the same result. Let

Q(a) = \displaystyle 2 \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{(a^2+b^2) dv}{(a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2 }.

Notice that I’ve written this integral as a function of the parameter a. I will demonstrate that Q'(a) = 0, so that Q(c) is a constant with respect to a. In other words, Q(a) does not depend on a.

To do this, I differentiate under the integral sign with respect to a (as opposed to x) using the Quotient Rule:

Q'(a) = \displaystyle 2 \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{ 2a \left[ (a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2\right] - 2 (a^2+b^2) \cdot (a^2+b^2) v^2 \cdot 2a }{\left[ (a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2 \right]^2} dv

Q'(a) = \displaystyle 4a \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{(a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2- 2 (a^2+b^2)^2 v^2}{\left[ (a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2 \right]^2} dv

Q'(a) = \displaystyle 4a \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{b^2-(a^2+b^2)^2 v^2}{\left[ (a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 + b^2 \right]^2} dv

I now apply the trigonometric substitution v = \displaystyle \frac{b}{a^2+b^2} \tan \theta, so that

(a^2+b^2)^2 v^2 = (a^2+b^2)^2 \displaystyle \left[ \frac{b}{a^2+b^2} \tan \theta \right]^2 = b^2 \tan^2 \theta

and

dv = \displaystyle \frac{b}{a^2+b^2} \sec^2 \theta \, d\theta

The endpoints of integration change from -\infty < v < \infty to -\pi/2 < \theta < \pi/2, and so

Q'(a) = \displaystyle 4a \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{b^2- b^2 \tan^2 \theta}{\left[ b^2 \tan^2 \theta + b^2 \right]^2} \frac{b}{a^2+b^2} \sec^2 \theta \, d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{[1- \tan^2 \theta] \sec^2 \theta}{\left[ \tan^2 \theta +1 \right]^2} d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{[1-\tan^2 \theta] \sec^2 \theta}{\left[ \sec^2 \theta \right]^2} d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{[1-\tan^2 \theta] \sec^2 \theta}{\sec^4 \theta} d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \frac{[1- \tan^2 \theta]}{\sec^2 \theta} d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} [1- \tan^2 \theta] \cos^2 \theta \, d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} [\cos^2 \theta -\sin^2 \theta] d\theta

= \displaystyle \frac{4ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2} \cos 2\theta \, d\theta

= \displaystyle \left[ \frac{2ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \sin 2\theta \right]^{\pi/2}_{-\pi/2}

= \displaystyle \frac{2ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \left[ \sin \pi - \sin (-\pi) \right]

= \displaystyle \frac{2ab^3}{a^2+b^2} \left[ 0- 0 \right]

= 0.

green line

I’m not completely thrilled with this demonstration that Q is independent of a, mostly because I had to do so much simplification of the integral Q to get this result. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’d love to figure out a way to directly start with

Q = \displaystyle \int_0^{2\pi} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + 2 a \sin x \cos x + (a^2 + b^2) \sin^2 x}

and demonstrate that Q is independent of a, perhaps by differentiating Q with respect to a and demonstrating that the resulting integral must be equal to 0. However, despite several hours of trying, I’ve not been able to establish this result without simplifying Q first.

1 Comment
by John Quintanilla on August 13, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Calculus, Precalculus
Tagged , , , , , , ,

Posted by John Quintanilla on August 13, 2015

https://meangreenmath.com/2015/08/13/how-i-impressed-my-wife-part-5b-2/

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  1. How I Impressed My Wife: Index | Mean Green Math

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