Section 5.1 : Indefinite Integrals
5. Evaluate \(\displaystyle \int{{{z^6} + 4{z^4} - {z^2}\,dz}}\).
All we are being asked to do here is “undo” a differentiation and if you recall the basic differentiation rules for polynomials this shouldn’t be too difficult. As we saw in the notes for this section all we really need to do is increase the exponent by one (so upon differentiation we get the correct exponent) and then fix up the coefficient to make sure that we will get the correct coefficient upon differentiation.
Here is the answer.
\[\int{{{z^6} + 4{z^4} - {z^2}\,dz}} = \require{bbox} \bbox[2pt,border:1px solid black]{{\frac{1}{7}{z^7} + \frac{4}{5}{z^5} - \frac{1}{3}{z^3} + c}}\]Don’t forget the “+c”! Remember that the original function may have had a constant on it and the “+c” is there to remind us of that.
Also, don’t forget that you can easily check your answer by differentiating your answer and making sure that the result is the same as the integrand.