Teaching ideas and activities for classroom: integrating technology into the pedagogy of integral calculus and the approximation of definite integrals

The purpose of this article is to offer teaching ideas in the treatment of the definite integral concept and the Riemann sums in a technology-supported environment. Specifically, the article offers teaching ideas and activities for classroom for the numerical methods of approximating a definite integral via left- and right-hand Riemann sums, along with midpoint and trapezoidal Riemann sums. The activities demonstrate innovative and creative ways of integrating technology, in particular, GeoGebra dynamic software, into the pedagogy of college-level integral calculus. It also provides, among other things, interesting and original teaching ideas incorporating technology, and an evaluation of these activities by the students themselves who experienced these activities with the GeoGebra dynamic software.     

A constructive integral equivalent to the integral of Kurzweil

We slightly modify the definition of the Kurzweil integral and prove that it still gives the same integral.     

Divisibility tests for low-valued primes and their use as generators of simple proofs

This article considers a family of divisibility tests for low-valued primes and their place as activities which develop the use of proof both within school and in teacher training. The way in which these tests can be seen as developing one from another is seen as of value in encouraging students to produce their own proofs.     

Solving fractional integral equations by the Haar wavelet method

Haar wavelets for the solution of fractional integral equations are applied. Fractional Volterra and Fredholm integral equations are considered. The proposed method also is used for analysing fractional harmonic vibrations. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by three numerical examples.     

Approximations first: a closer look at applications of the definite integral*

I propose that students pay more attention to the approximations that lead to integral formulas when they study applications of the definite integral. The goal is to focus students on the underlying concepts and the definition of the definite integral – and to steer them away from memorizing formulas. To address this goal, I have written some computer-based activities that guide students through the nuts and bolts of the approximations that eventually lead to integral formulas. I describe the activities and suggest a few changes as to how we might approach this material.     

A random approach to the Lebesgue integral

We construct an integral of a measurable real function using randomly chosen Riemann sums and show that it converges in probability to the Lebesgue integral where this exists. We then prove some conditions for the almost sure convergence of this integral.     

An alternative method to obtain integral kernels for Lamé integral equations

In the present paper we introduce an alternative approach to obtain kernels for Lamé integral equations. The introduced procedure, based solely on simple algebraic manipulations, furnishes the well known kernels of hypergeometric form in an almost trivial manner without the use of transformations. More important, it provides a set of novel nuclei for Lamé integral equations in the form of Heun functions.     

A new type of integral equations related to the co-area formula (Reduction of dimension in multi-dimensional integral equations)

Some classes of multi-dimensional integral equations of the second kind are introduced which admit an equivalent reduction to integral equations for functions depending on a smaller number of independent variables. This reduction is performed by factorization of the integral operator based on the co-area formulas.     

Asymptotic analysis and asymptotic domain decomposition for an integral equation of the radiative transfer type

We consider an integral equation of the radiative transfer type stated in the interval [0,τ₀] with the length τ₀1. We construct an asymptotic solution of the problem and we give a method transforming this problem to some similar problems set in the interval with the length dτ₀. Error estimates are proved.     

Quadrature formulas for the generalized Riemann-Stieltjes integral

In this paper we propose a technique of approximation for the generalized Riemann-Stieltjes integral and we found an analogue for Newton-Cotes formulas in the case n = 2 and n = 3. *Beneficiary of a Socrates fellowship at the Department of Mathematics, University of Study of Cagliari, Via Ospedale, n. 72, Cagliari, 09124, Italy, in the period February – July 2002.     

Some Unusual Identities for Special Values of the Riemann Zeta Function

In this paper, we use elementary methods to derive some new identities for special values of the Riemann zeta function.     

A remark on the single scattering preconditioner applied to boundary integral equations

This article deals with boundary integral equation preconditioning for the multiple scattering problem. The focus is put on the single scattering preconditioner, corresponding to the diagonal part of the integral operator, for which two results are proved. Indeed, after applying this geometric preconditioner, it appears that, firstly, every direct integral equations become identical to each other, and secondly, that the indirect integral equation of Brakhage–Werner becomes equal to the direct integral equations, up to a change of basis. These properties imply in particular that the convergence rate of a Krylov subspaces solver will be exactly the same for every preconditioned integral equations. To illustrate this, some numerical simulations are provided at the end of the paper.     

Note on the integral mean value method for Fredholm integral equations of the second kind

We study the paper of Avazzadeh et al. [Z. Avazzadeh, M. Heydari, G.B., Loghmani, Numerical solution of Fedholm integral equations of the second kind by using integral mean value theorem, Appl. Math. Model. 35 (2011) 2374–2383] with the integral mean value method for Fredholm integral equations of the second kind. The objective of the note is threefold. First, we point out a basic error in the paper. Second, we find that the given numerical examples are only related to the special cases of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind with the degenerate kernels, which can be solved simply. Third, due to the basic error, our observations reveal that generally the suggested method should not be considered for a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind.     

A remark on an integral characterization of the dual of BV

In this paper, we show how under the continuum hypothesis one can obtain an integral representation for elements of the topological dual of the space of functions of bounded variation in terms of Lebesgue and Kolmogorov–Burkill integrals.     

Some new explicit bounds for weakly singular integral inequalities with applications to fractional differential and integral equations

Some new weakly singular integral inequalities of Gronwall-Bellman type are established, which generalized some known weakly singular inequalities and can be used in the analysis of various problems in the theory of certain classes of differential equations, integral equations and evolution equations. Some applications to fractional differential and integral equations are also indicated.     

Collocation methods for solving multivariable integral equations of the second kind

In a recent paper (Allouch, in press) [5] on one dimensional integral equations of the second kind, we have introduced new collocation methods. These methods are based on an interpolatory projection at Gauss points onto a space of discontinuous piecewise polynomials of degree r$r$ which are inspired by Kulkarni’s methods (Kulkarni, 2003) [10], and have been shown to give a 4r+4$4r+4$ convergence for suitable smooth kernels. In this paper, these methods are extended to multi-dimensional second kind equations and are shown to have a convergence of order 2r+4$2r+4$. The size of the systems of equations that must be solved in implementing these methods remains the same as for Kulkarni’s methods. A two-grid iteration convergent method for solving the system of equations based on these new methods is also defined.     

A meshless like method for the approximate solution of integral equations over polygons

In this paper, a numerical scheme based on a Gauss-like cubature formula from Sammariva and Vianello (2007) [1] is introduced for approximate solution of integral equations over a polygonal domain with a piecewise straight lines boundary in R²${\mathbb{R}}^2$. The proposed technique is a meshless like method with sufficient precision, which does not require any discretization of the polygon domain or any preprocessing such as mesh refinement. The error analysis of the method is provided and some numerical experiments are also presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.