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An extension of the mean value

theorem for integrals
a a
Parviz Khalili & Daniel Vasiliu
a
Department of Mathematics, Christopher Newport University,
Newport News, VA 23606, USA

Available online: 24 Jun 2010

To cite this article: Parviz Khalili & Daniel Vasiliu (2010): An extension of the mean value theorem
for integrals, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 41:5,
707-710

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 International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 707

An extension of the mean value theorem for integrals

Parviz Khalili* and Daniel Vasiliu

Department of Mathematics, Christopher Newport University,

Newport News, VA 23606, USA
(Received 15 September 2009)

In this note we present an extension of the mean value theorem for

integrals. The extension we consider is motivated by an older result (here
referred as Corollary 2), which is quite classical for the literature of
Mathematical Analysis or Calculus. We also show an interesting applica-
tion for computing the sum of a harmonic series.
Keywords: mean value; integrals; p-series
AMS Subject Classifications: 26A06; 26A42
Downloaded by [University of Guelph] at 08:17 01 June 2012

The inspiration for the results we present below came from extensions of the mean
value theorem presented in [1–3]. Our aim is to investigate a possible extension of the
classical Bonnet’s mean value theorem. The idea of an application for our version of
the mean value theorem comes from [4].
Theorem 1: Let f and g be two nonnegative continuous functions on the interval [a, b]
and  2 (0, 1).
(i) There exists a c 2 (a, b) such that
Zb Zb Zb
f ðxÞ gðxÞdx ¼ f ðcÞ gðxÞdx þ ð1  Þ gðcÞ f ðxÞdx:
a a a

(ii) Assume that the functions f and g are differentiable at a and f 0 (a)g(a) 6¼ 0 or
f(a)g0 (a) 6¼ 0. For any x 2 (a, b) there exists c,x 2 (a, x) such that
Z x Z x Z x
f ðtÞ gðtÞdt ¼  f ðc,x Þ gðtÞdt þ ð1  Þ gðc,x Þ f ðtÞdt
a a a

and also we have

c,x  a 1
lim ¼
x!a xa 2
for every  2 (0, 1) (except possibly one value).
Note that when g(x) c constant and  ¼ 1 then (i) is just the mean value theorem
for integrals.
Proof: (i) Let us define
Z b Z b
hðtÞ ¼ f ðtÞ gðxÞdx þ ð1  Þ gðtÞ f ðxÞ, t 2 ½a, b:
a a

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

DOI: 10.1080/00207391003606476
 708 Classroom Notes

Since f and g are continuous on [a, b], there exist constants Mi, mi , i ¼ 1, 2 such that
m1  f(x)  M1 and m2  g(x)  M2 . Then we have the following estimates:
ðb  aÞm1 m2  hðtÞ  ðb  aÞM1 M2 ð1Þ

Z b
ðb  aÞm1 m2  f ðxÞ gðxÞdx  ðb  aÞM1 M2 : ð2Þ
a

From (1) andR b (2) and the intermediate value theorem there exists a c 2 (a, b) such
that hðcÞ ¼ a f ðxÞ gðxÞdx.
(ii) By (i) we have that there exists c,x 2 (a, x) such that
Zx Zx Zx
f ðtÞ gðtÞdt ¼ f ðc,x Þ gðtÞdt þ ð1  Þ gðc,x Þ f ðtÞdt:
a a a
f ðxÞf ðaÞ gðxÞgðaÞ
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Let R1 ðxÞ ¼ xa and 2 ðxÞ ¼ xa .

If we plug in c,x for x in 1(x) and multiply
x
by  a gðtÞdt we obtain
Zx Zx Zx
f ðc,x Þ gðtÞdt  f ðaÞ gðtÞdt ¼  1 ðc,x Þðc,x  aÞ gðtÞdt: ð3Þ
a a a

In an analogous way, working on 2(x), we get

Zx Zx Zx
ð1  Þ gðc,x Þ f ðtÞdt  ð1  Þ gðaÞ f ðtÞdt ¼ ð1  Þ 2 ðc,x Þðc,x  aÞ f ðtÞdt:
a a a
ð4Þ

Adding up Equations (3) and (4), we obtain

Zx Zx Zx
f ðtÞ gðtÞdt  f ðaÞ gðtÞdt  ð1  Þ gðaÞ f ðtÞdt
a a a
 Zx Zx 
¼ ðc,x  aÞ  1 ðc,x Þ gðtÞdt þ ð1  Þ 2 ðc,x Þ f ðtÞdt :
a a
2
We divide both sides by (x  a) and take the limit x ! a. Applying L’Hôpital’s rule
we obtain

1 c,x  a
ðf 0 ðaÞ gðaÞ þ ð1  Þ f ðaÞ g0 ðaÞÞ ¼ ðf 0 ðaÞ gðaÞ þ ð1  Þ f ðaÞ g0 ðaÞÞ  lim :
2 x!a x  a

Thus
c,x  a 1
lim ¼ ,
x!a xa 2
of course, for choosing  such that f 0 (a)g(a) þ (1  )f(a)g0 (a) 6¼ 0.
Corollary 2: Assume that f : [a, b] ! R is continuous on [a, b] and g : [a, b] ! R is
Riemann-integrable on [a, b] with g(x)  0 for all x 2 [a, b]. Then, there exists c 2 [a, b]
such that
Zb Zb
f ðtÞ gðtÞdt ¼ f ðcÞ gðtÞdt ð5Þ
a a
 International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 709
Rb
Proof: Let hðxÞ ¼ f ðxÞ a gðtÞdt: The rest of the proof follows similar as in part (i) of
the theorem. Note that when f(x)  0, then (5) is essentially (i) as  ! 1.
Corollary 3: Theorem 1 remains true if we consider n nonnegative continuous
functions f1, f2, . . . , fn : [a, b] ! R and 1, 2, . . . , n 2 (0, 1) with 1 þ 2 þ    þ n ¼ 1.
We have that there exists c 2 (a, b) such that
Z bY
n X
n Z bY
n
fi ðtÞdt ¼ i fi ðcÞ fj ðtÞdt:
a i¼1 i¼1 a j¼1
j6¼i

Proof: The proof is very similar to what we did in the part (i) of the theorem.
Application
Now we are going to use Corollary 2 for proving
Downloaded by [University of Guelph] at 08:17 01 June 2012

X1
1 2
¼ : ð6Þ
n¼1
n2 6

We consider the following two representations of the Dirichlet kernel:

1 Xn
sinð2n þ 1Þðx=2Þ
Dn ðxÞ ¼ þ cos kx ¼ : ð7Þ
2 k¼1 2 sinðx=2Þ
R
Let An ¼ 0 tDn ðtÞdt: Using the previous equation we obtain
2 Xn
1
A2n1 ¼ 2 2
ð8Þ
4 k¼1 ð2k  1Þ

and also
Z  
t=2 t
A2n1 ¼ sinð4n  1Þ dt: ð9Þ
0 sinðt=2Þ 2

To conclude the proof we notice that it would be enough to show P1that 1A2n1¼ 2
O(1/n). Indeed, if we proved
P1 1 that A 2n1 ¼ O(1/n) by (8) we have n¼1 ð2n1Þ2 ¼ 8 :
Then if we denote S ¼ n¼1 n2 we have
X1
1 X1
1 1X 1
1 2 1 2
S¼ 2
þ 2
¼ þ ¼ S þ
n¼1 ð2nÞ n¼1 ð2n  1Þ
4 n¼1 n2 8 4 8
2
and it implies that S ¼ 6 :
Now we come back to proving A2n1 ¼ O(1/n). We have
Z   Z  
t=2 t t=2 t
sinð4n  1Þ dt ¼ lim sinð4n  1Þ dt
0 sinðt=2Þ 2 !0 sinðt=2Þ 2

but
Z   Z   
t=2 t t=2 2 t 0
sinð4n  1Þ dt ¼  cosð4n  1Þ dt:
sinðt=2Þ 2 sinðt=2Þ 4n  1 2
 710 Classroom Notes

Integrating by parts we obtain

Z    
t=2 2 t 0 t=2 2 t 
A2n1 ¼ cosð4n  1Þ dt ¼ cosð4n  1Þ 
sinðt=2Þ 4n  1 2 sinðt=2Þ 4n  1 2
Z  1 t  
2 sinðt=2Þ  4 cosðt=2Þ 2 t
 2
cosð4n  1Þ dt:
sin ðt=2Þ 4n  1 2
1
2 sinðt=2Þ4t cosðt=2Þ
Applying the Corollary 2 with f ðtÞ ¼ 4n1 cosð4n  1Þ 2t and gðtÞ ¼ 2 sin2 ðt=2Þ
,
there exists c 2 [ , ] such that

t=2 2 t  2 c
A2n1 ¼ cosð4n  1Þ   cosð4n  1Þ
sin t=2 4n  1 2 4n  1 2
Z  1 t 
2 sinðt=2Þ  4 cosðt=2Þ
 dt:
sin2 ðt=2Þ
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This shows that

A2n1 ¼ lim A2n1 ¼ Oð1=nÞ,
!0

which concludes the proof.

References

[1] B. Jacobson, On the mean value theorem for integrals, Am. Math. Monthly 89(5) (1982),
pp. 300–301.
[2] W.J. Schwind, J. Ji, and D.E. Koditschek, A physically motivated further note on the mean
value theorem for integrals, Am. Math. Monthly 106(6) (1999), p. 559.
[3] J. Tong, A generalization of the mean value theorem for integrals, College Math. J. 33(5)
(2002), p. 408.
[4] E.L. Stark, Application of a mean value theorem for integrals to series summation,
Am. Math. Monthly 85(6) (1978), pp. 481–483.