# How I Impressed My Wife: Part 6d

This series was inspired by a question that my wife asked me: calculate

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

Originally, I multiplied the top and bottom of the integrand by $\tan^2 x$ and performed a substitution. However, as I’ve discussed in this series, there are four different ways that this integral can be evaluated.
Starting with today’s post, I’ll begin a fifth method. I really like this integral, as it illustrates so many different techniques of integration as well as the trigonometric tricks necessary for computing some integrals.

nvenient value of $a$ that I want without changing the value of $Q$. As shown in previous posts, substituting $a =0$ yields the following simplification:

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

$= \displaystyle \int_{0}^{2\pi} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + 2 \cdot 0 \cdot \sin x \cos x + (0^2 + b^2) \sin^2 x}$

$= \displaystyle \int_{0}^{2\pi} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + b^2 \sin^2 x}$

$= \displaystyle \int_{-\pi}^{\pi} \frac{dx}{\cos^2 x + b^2 \sin^2 x}$

$= \displaystyle \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{ 2(1+u^2) du}{u^4 + (4 b^2 - 2) u^2 + 1}$

$= \displaystyle \lim_{R \to \infty} \oint_{C_R} \frac{ 2(1+z^2) dz}{z^4 + (4 b^2 - 2) z^2 + 1}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \left[ \frac{1-r_1^2}{-2r_1^3 + (4b^2-2) r_1} +\frac{1-r_2^2}{-2r_2^3 + (4b^2-2) r_2} \right]$

where I’ve assumed $|b| > 1$, the contour $C_R$ in the complex plane is shown below (graphic courtesy of Mathworld),

and the positive constants $r_1$ and $r_2$ are given by

$r_1 = \sqrt{2b^2 - 1 + 2|b| \sqrt{b^2 - 1}}$,

$r_2 = \sqrt{2b^2 - 1 - 2|b| \sqrt{b^2 - 1}}$.

Now we have the small matter of simplifying our expression for $Q$. Actually, this isn’t a small matter because Mathematica 10.1 is not able to simplify this expression much at all:

Fortunately, humans can still do some things that computers can’t. As observed yesterday, The numbers $r_1$ and $r_2$ are chosen so that $\pm ir_1$ and $\pm ir_2$ are the roots of the denominator $z^4 + (4 b^2 - 2) z^2 + 1$, so that

$r_1^2 + r_2^2 = 4b^2 - 2$,

$r_1 r_2 = 1$.

These relationships will be very handy for simplifying our expression for $Q$:

$Q = 2\pi \displaystyle \left[ \frac{1-r_1^2}{-2r_1^3 + (4b^2-2) r_1} +\frac{1-r_2^2}{-2r_2^3 + (4b^2-2) r_2} \right]$

$= 2\pi \left[ \displaystyle \frac{1-r_1^2}{r_1 (-2r_1^2 + 4b^2-2)} + \frac{1-r_2^2}{r_2(-2r_2^2 + 4b^2-2)} \right]$

$= 2\pi \left[ \displaystyle \frac{1-r_1^2}{r_1 (-2r_1^2 +r_1^2 + r_2^2)} + \frac{1-r_2^2}{r_2(-2r_2^2 + r_1^2 + r_2^2)} \right]$

$= 2\pi \left[ \displaystyle \frac{1-r_1^2}{r_1 (-r_1^2 +r_2^2)} + \frac{1-r_2^2}{r_2(r_1^2 -r_2^2)} \right]$

$= 2\pi \left[ \displaystyle \frac{r_1^2-1}{r_1 (r_1^2 -r_2^2)} + \frac{1-r_2^2}{r_2(r_1^2 -r_2^2)} \right]$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{(r_1^2-1)r_2 + r_1(1-r_2^2)}{r_1 r_2 (r_1^2 -r_2^2)}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{r_1^2 r_2- r_2 + r_1- r_1 r_2^2)}{r_1 r_2 (r_1^2 -r_2^2)}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{r_1 - r_2 + r_1 r_2 (r_1 - r_2)}{r_1 r_2 (r_1-r_2)(r_1 + r_2)}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{(r_1 - r_2)(1 + r_1 r_2)}{r_1 r_2 (r_1-r_2)(r_1 + r_2)}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{1 + r_1 r_2}{r_1 r_2 (r_1 + r_2)}$

$= 2\pi \displaystyle \frac{1 + 1}{1 \cdot (r_1 + r_2)}$

$= \displaystyle \frac{4\pi}{r_1 + r_2}$

To complete the calculation, I observe that

$(r_1 + r_2)^2 = r_1^2 + 2r_1 r_2 + r_2^2 = 4b^2 -2 + 2 = 4b^2$,

so that

$r_1 + r_2 = 2|b|$.

Therefore,

$Q = \displaystyle \frac{4\pi}{r_1 + r_2} = \displaystyle \frac{4\pi}{2|b|} = \displaystyle \frac{2\pi}{|b|}$.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll present another way to simplify this nasty algebraic expression.