Trapezoidal Rule of

Integration

Major: All Engineering Majors

Authors: Autar Kaw, Charlie Barker

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.
edu

Transforming Numerical Methods Education for STEM

Undergraduates

05/11/16

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du

Trapezoidal Rule of
Integration

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.edu

What is Integration
Integration:
The process of
measuring the area
under a function plotted
on a graph.
b

I f ( x )dx
a

Where:
f(x) is the integrand
a= lower limit of
integration
3

b= upper limit of
integration

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Basis of Trapezoidal Rule

Trapezoidal Rule is based on the Newton-Cotes
Formula that states if one can approximate the
integrand as an nth order polynomial
b

I f ( x )dx

where

f ( x ) fn( x )

and

f n ( x ) a0 a1 x ... an1 x n 1 an x n

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Basis of Trapezoidal Rule

Then the integral of that function is approximated
by the integral of that nth order polynomial.
b

f ( x ) fn( x )
Trapezoidal Rule assumes n=1, that is, the
area
under the linear polynomial,
b

f ( a ) f ( b )

(
b

a
)
f ( x )dx

2
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Derivation of the Trapezoidal

Rule

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Method Derived From

Geometry

The area under the

curve is a
trapezoid. The
integral

f ( x)dx Area of

trapezoid

1
( Sum of parallel sides )( height )
2

1
f ( b ) f ( a )( b a )
2

f ( a ) f ( b )
( b a )

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Example 1
The vertical distance covered by a rocket from t=8
to t=30 seconds is given by:

140000

x 2000 ln

9
.
8
t
dt

140000 2100t

8
30

a) Use single segment Trapezoidal rule to find the distance

covered.
Et
b) Find the true error,
for part (a).a
c) Find the absolute relative true error,
for part (a).

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Solution
a)

f ( a ) f ( b )
I ( b a )

a 8

b 30

140000

f ( t ) 2000 ln
9.8t

140000 2100t

140000

f ( 8 ) 2000 ln
9.8( 8 )

140000 2100( 8 )

177.27 m / s

140000

9.8( 30 ) 901.67 m / s

140000 2100( 30 )

f ( 30 ) 2000 ln

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Solution (cont)
177.27 901.67
I ( 30 8 )

a)

11868 m

b) The exact value of the above integral is

140000

x 2000 ln

9
.
8
t
dt

140000 2100t

8
30

10

11061 m

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Solution (cont)
b)

Et True Value Approximat e Value

11061 11868
807 m

c)

t ,
The absolute relative true error

, would be

11061 11868
t
100 7.2959%
11061

11

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Multiple Segment Trapezoidal

Rule
In Example 1, the true error using single segment trapezoidal rule
was large. We can divide the interval [8,30] into [8,19] and
[19,30] intervals and apply Trapezoidal rule over each segment.

140000

f ( t ) 2000 ln
9.8t
140000 2100t
30

19

30

19

f ( t )dt f ( t )dt f ( t )dt

f ( 8 ) f ( 19 )
f ( 19 ) f ( 30 )
( 19 8 )
( 30 19 )

2
2

12

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Multiple Segment Trapezoidal

Rule
With

f ( 8 ) 177.27 m / s
f ( 30 ) 901.67 m / s

f ( 19 ) 484.75 m / s
Hence:
30

177.27 484.75
484.75 901.67

(
30

19
)

2
2

f (t )dt (19 8)

11266 m
13

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Multiple Segment Trapezoidal

Rule
The true error is:

Et 11061 11266
205 m

The true error now is reduced from -807 m to -205

m.
Extending this procedure to divide the interval into
equal segments to apply the Trapezoidal rule; the
sum of the results obtained for each segment is
the approximate value of the integral.

14

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Multiple Segment Trapezoidal

Rule
Divide into equal
segments as shown in
Figure 4. Then the width
of each segment
b a is:

The integral I is:

b

I f ( x )dx
a

Figure 4: Multiple (n=4) Segment Trapezoidal

Rule

15

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Multiple Segment Trapezoidal

Rule
The integral I can be broken into h integrals
as: a 2 h
a ( n 1 )h
b
ah

f ( x )dx
a

f ( x )dx f ( x )dx ...

a

ah

f ( x )dx

a ( n 2 )h

f ( x )dx

a ( n 1 ) h

Applying Trapezoidal rule on each segment gives:

b

16

ba

f
(
a
)

2
f ( x )dx

2n

f
(
a

ih
)

f
(
b
)

i 1

n 1

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Example 2
The vertical distance covered by a rocket from to
seconds is given by:
30

140000

x 2000 ln
9.8t dt

140000 2100t

a) Use two-segment Trapezoidal rule to find the distance

Et
covered.
a
b) Find the true error,
for part (a).
c) Find the absolute relative true error,
for part (a).

17

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Solution
a) The solution using 2-segment Trapezoidal rule is

ba

I
f
(
a
)

2n

n2

n 1

i 1

f ( a ih ) f ( b )

a8

ba
30 8
h

n
2

18

b 30
11

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Solution (cont)
Then:

30 8

I
f
(
8
)

2( 2 )

2 1

i 1

f ( a ih ) f ( 30 )

22
f ( 8 ) 2 f ( 19 ) f ( 30 )
4

22
177.27 2( 484.75 ) 901.67
4

11266 m

19

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Solution (cont)
b) The exact value of the above integral is
30

140000

x 2000 ln

9
.
8
t
dt 11061 m

140000 2100t

so the true error is

E t True Value Approximat e Value

11061 11266

20

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Solution (cont)
t ,
The absolute relative true error
t

, would be

True Error
100
True Value
11061 11266
100
11061

1.8534%

21

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Solution (cont)
Table 1 gives the values
obtained using multiple
segment Trapezoidal rule
for

Value

Et

11868

-807

7.296

---

11266

-205

1.853

5.343

140000

x 2000 ln

9
.
8
t
dt

140000

2100
t

11153

-91.4

0.8265

1.019

11113

-51.5

0.4655

0.3594

11094

-33.0

0.2981

0.1669

Exact Value=11061 m

11084

-22.9

0.2070

0.0908
2

11078

-16.8

0.1521

0.0548
2

30

t %

a %

Table 1: Multiple Segment Trapezoidal Rule

8
11074
-12.9
0.1165 0.0356
Values

22

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Example 3
Use Multiple Segment Trapezoidal Rule to
find the area under the curve

300 x
f(x)
1 ex

from

x0

Using two segments, we get

f(0)

23

300( 0 )
0
0
1 e

f (5)

to

x 10

10 0
h
5
2

300( 5 )
10.039
5
1 e

f ( 10 )

and

300( 10 )
0.136
10
1 e

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Solution
Then:

ba
I
f
(
a
)

2n

n 1

10 0

f
(
0
)

2( 2 )

2 1

f
(
a

ih
)

f
(
b
)

i 1

f
(
0

5
)

f
(
10
)

i 1

10
f ( 0 ) 2 f ( 5 ) f ( 10 ) 10 0 2( 10.039 ) 0.136
4
4

50.535

24

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Solution (cont)
So what is the true value of this integral?
10

300 x

01 e

dx 246.59

Making the absolute relative true error:

t

246.59 50.535
100%
246.59

79.506%

25

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Solution (cont)
Table 2: Values obtained using Multiple Segment
Trapezoidal Rule for: 10 300 x

01 e

26

dx

Approximate
Value

Et

0.681

245.91

99.724%

50.535

196.05

79.505%

170.61

75.978

30.812%

227.04

19.546

7.927%

16

241.70

4.887

1.982%

32

245.37

1.222

0.495%

64

246.28

0.305

0.124%

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Error in Multiple Segment

Trapezoidal Rule
The true error for a single segment Trapezoidal rule is given by:
( b a )3
a ,b
Et
f " ( ), a b
where is some point in
12
What is the error, then in the multiple segment Trapezoidal rule?
It will be simply the sum of the errors from each segment,
where the error in each segment is that of the single segment
Trapezoidal rule.
The error in each segment is
( a h ) a 3
E1
f " ( 1 ), a 1 a h
12
h3

f " ( 1 )
12
27

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Error in Multiple Segment

Trapezoidal Rule
Similarly:
( a ih ) ( a ( i 1 )h ) 3
Ei
f " ( i ), a ( i 1 )h i a ih
12
h3

f " ( i )
12
It then follows that:
En

b a ( n 1 )h 3
12

f " ( n ), a ( n 1 )h n b

h3

f" (n )
12
28

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Error in Multiple Segment

Trapezoidal Rule
Hence the total error in multiple segment Trapezoidal rule is
n

3
h3 n
(
b

a
)

f " ( i )
12 i 1
12n 2

Et Ei
i 1
n

The term

i 1

f " ( i )

i 1

f " ( i ) is an approximate average value of fthe

" ( x ), a x b
n

Henc

e:

Et

29

(b a )
12n 2

f " ( i )

i 1

n
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Error in Multiple Segment

Trapezoidal Rule
30

140000

2000
ln

9
.
8
t

dt

140000 2100t

Below is the table for the

integral

as a function of the number of segments. You can visualize that as

the number of segments are doubled, the true error gets
approximately quartered.

30

Value

Et

t %

a %

11266

-205

1.854

5.343

11113

-51.5

0.4655

0.3594

11074

-12.9

0.1165

0.0356
0

16

11065

-3.22

0.02913

0.0040
1

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Additional Resources
For all resources on this topic such as digital
audiovisual lectures, primers, textbook chapters,
multiple-choice tests, worksheets in MATLAB,
MATHEMATICA, MathCad and MAPLE, blogs,
related physical problems, please visit
http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu/topics/trape
zoidal_rule.html

THE END
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