Trapezoidal Rule
Instead of using rectangles as we did in the arches problem, we'll use trapezoids(trapeziums) and we'll find that it gives a better
approximation to the area.
y1 y2 y3 y4 y5
y6
y0
Δx Δx Δx Δx Δx Δx
Area under curve using trapezoidal Rule
https://www.intmath.com/integration/5-trapezoidal-rule.php 1/3
06/10/2017 5. Trapezoidal Rule
So the approximate area under the curve is found by adding the area of the trapezoids. (Our trapezoids are rotated 90° so that their
new base is actually the height. So h = Δx.)
1 1 1
Area ≈ (y 0 + y 1 )Δx+ (y 1 + y 2 )Δx+ (y 2 + y 3 )Δx + …
2 2 2
We can simplify this to give us the Trapezoidal Rule, for n trapezoids:
y0 yn
Area ≈ Δx( + y1 + y2 + y3 + … + )
2 2
b−a
Δx =
n
and we also need
y 0 = f (a)
y 1 = f (a + Δx)
y 2 = f (a + 2Δx)
y n = f (b)
Note
https://www.intmath.com/integration/5-trapezoidal-rule.php 2/3
06/10/2017 5. Trapezoidal Rule
https://www.intmath.com/integration/5-trapezoidal-rule.php 3/3