A22 German
A22 German
A22 German
German Lozada-Cruz
To cite this article: German Lozada-Cruz (2021) Some variants of the integral mean value
theorem, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 52:7,
1124-1130, DOI: 10.1080/0020739X.2020.1822555
CLASSROOM NOTE
1. Introduction
The ancient problems that appear in history related to integrals are quadrature problems,
that is, when the ancient geometers began to study the areas of regions on the plane, they
related them to the area of the rectangle, because this is the simplest plane figure. Thus they
tried to find a rectangle that has the same area as the region in question. This brings us to
the fundamentals of the integral calculus (Boyer, 1959).
After the first contact of our mathematics or engineering undergraduate students with
the integral calculus, we can study the integral mean value theorem, where we need to find
a rectangle with the same area of the region under the graphic of a real function f defined
in a certain interval [a, b]. The calculation of rectangle areas for the students is easier.
The mean value theorems are useful tools of mathematical analysis. The first mean value
theorem is the famous Lagrange’s mean value theorem (Lang, 2005, Theorem 2.3; Protter
& Morrey, 1991, Theorem 4.12; Sahoo & Riedel, 1998, Theorem 2.2) and it states that if
f is continuous on [a, b] and differentiable on (a, b), then there exists c ∈ (a, b) such that
the tangent line to the graph of f at c is parallel to the secant line connecting (a, f (a)) and
(b, f (b)).
The second mean value theorem is the Cauchy’s mean value theorem (Protter & Mor-
rey, 1991, Theorem 4.14; Sahoo & Riedel, 1998, Theorem 2.17), which is a generalization
of Lagrange’s mean value theorem.
The third mean value theorem is the integral mean value theorem (Protter & Mor-
rey, 1991, Theorem 5.6; Sahoo & Riedel, 1998, Theorem 7.1). It asserts that a continuous
function on a bounded closed interval has at least one point where it is equal to its average
value on the interval.
Now, for the sake of completeness we first state Lagrange’s theorem and some variants
of it (Flett’s theorem and Myers’ theorem).
Flett (1958) gave the first variant of Lagrange’s mean value theorem.
For a geometrical interpretation of Flett’s theorem, see Hutník and Molnárová (2015).
Myers (1977) proved a slight variant of Flett’s theorem.
1 f (b) − f (a)
f (η) − f (a) = f (η)(η − a) − (η − a)2 . (4)
2 b−a
Çakmak and Tiryaki (2012, Theorem 2.1) proved a slight modification of Sahoo–Riedel
theorem (Theorem 1.4) which reduces to Myers’ theorem (Theorem 1.3) when f (a) =
f (b).
1 f (b) − f (a)
f (b) − f (η) = f (η)(b − η) + (b − η)2 . (5)
2 b−a
Now, we state the Integral mean value theorem and some variants of it (Wayment’s
theorem and Sahoo’s theorem).
1126 G. LOZADA-CRUZ
Theorem 1.6 (Integral mean value theorem): If f : [a, b] → R be a continuous on [a, b],
then there exists ξ ∈ (a, b) such that
b
(b − a)f (ξ ) = f (x) dx. (6)
a
From the geometric point of view, Equation (6) tells us that the area under the graphic of
function f from a to b is equal to the area of the rectangle of sides b−a and f (ξ ) (Figure 1).
Wayment (1970) proved an integral version of Flett’s mean value theorem.
Sahoo (2007) removed the boundary condition of Wayment’s theorem and gets the
following result.
Theorem 1.8 (Sahoo’s Theorem): If f : [a, b] → R be a continuous function on [a, b], then
there exists ξ ∈ (a, b) such that
ξ
1 f (b) − f (a)
(ξ − a)f (ξ ) − (ξ − a)2 = f (x) dx. (8)
2 b−a a
The main motivation of this note is the Sahoo’s paper (Sahoo, 2007) where he proved a
generalization of Integral Wayment’s theorem (Theorem 1.7). And to do this he used some
simple auxiliary functions.
In this note, other variants of the integral mean value theorems are proved (Theo-
rems 2.3 and 2.6 in Section 2). And to get these we use some simple auxiliary functions,
also. Thinking about these issues and in a way to develop student’s skills and competencies
in manipulating these functions and, consequently, understanding the proofs in this work,
this is the main goal of this note.
2. Main results
In this section, we prove some variants of the integral mean value theorem.
First we prove a variant of Sahoo–Riedel’s Theorem.
Proof: Let n be a non-negative integer and consider the auxiliary function ψ : [a, b] → R
given by ψ(x) = f (x) + λ(x − a)n+1 , where λ ∈ R. We choose λ in such a way that the
condition ψ (a) = ψ (b) holds true.
We can see that ψ is differentiable on [a, b] and ψ (x) = f (x) + (n + 1)λ(x − a)n .
Then
1 f (b) − f (a)
ψ (a) = ψ (b) ⇔ f (a) = f (b) + (n + 1)λ(b − a)n ⇔ λ = − .
n + 1 (b − a)n
1 f (b)−f (a)
Thus the auxiliary function takes the form ψ(x) = f (x) − n+1 (b−a)n (x − a)
n+1 which
satisfies the conditions of Flett’s theorem (Theorem 1.2). Then there exists η ∈ (a, b) such
that ψ(η) − ψ(a) = ψ (η)(η − a) and the conclusion follows.
2 f (b) − f (a)
f (η) − f (a) = f (η)(η − a) − (η − a)3 .
3 (b − a)2
n g (b) − g (a)
g(c) − g(a) = g (c)(c − a) − (c − a)n ,
n + 1 (b − a)n−1
which implies
n − f (a) + f (b)
f (a + b − c) − f (b) = −f (a + b − c)(c − a) − (c − a)n .
n+1 (b − a)n−1
Now, putting η = a + b − c we obtain (10).
2 f (b) − f (a)
f (b) − f (η) = f (η)(b − η) + (b − η)3 .
3 (b − a)2
Now we prove our first main result of this section, that is, a variant of Sahoo’s theorem
(Theorem 1.8).
Theorem 2.3: If f : [a, b] → R is a continuous function on [a, b], then there exists ξ ∈ (a, b)
such that
ξ
n f (b) − f (a)
(ξ − a)f (ξ ) − (ξ − a) n+1
= f (x) dx, n ∈ N. (11)
n + 1 (b − a)n a
x
Proof: Apply (9) to the function F : [a, b] → R given by F(x) = a f (t) dt, x ∈ [a, b].
Theorem 2.4: If f : [a, b] → R is a continuous function on [a, b] and f (a) = f (b), then
there is ξ ∈ (a, b) such that
b
(b − ξ )f (ξ ) = f (x) dx. (12)
ξ
The following result is a variant of Theorem 2.4 when the boundary condition f (a) =
f (b) is removed.
Theorem 2.5: If f : [a, b] → R is a continuous function on [a, b], then exists ξ ∈ (a, b)
such that
b
1 f (b) − f (a)
(b − ξ )f (ξ ) + (b − ξ )2 = f (x) dx. (13)
2 b−a ξ
Now we prove our second main result, that is, a variant of Theorem 2.5.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1129
Theorem 2.6: If f : [a, b] → R is a continuous function on [a, b], then there exists ξ ∈ (a, b)
such that
b
n f (b) − f (a)
(b − ξ )f (ξ ) + (b − ξ )n+1
= f (x) dx, n ∈ N. (14)
n + 1 (b − a)n ξ
b
Proof: Consider the function G : [a, b] → R defined by G(x) = x f (t) dt, x ∈ [a, b].
Now, applying (10) to the function G there exists η ∈ (a, b) such that
n G (b) − G (a)
G(b) − G(η) = G (η)(b − η) + (b − η)n+1
n + 1 (b − a)n
and from this follows the conclusion.
3. Conclusion
In this note, some variants of integral mean value theorem were proved (Theorems 2.3
and 2.6). To do these, some elementary auxiliary functions were used. There are also other
proofs of the main theorems using the primitive of a function f (see proof 2 of Theorems 2.3
and 2.6).
It is important to point out that the use of simple auxiliary functions to prove the
type of integral mean value theorems is an effective didactic resource (Sahoo, 2007; Way-
ment, 1970). This has already been seen in the proof of Lagrange’s and Cauchy’s mean value
theorems (Lozada-Cruz, 2019, 2020; Myers, 1977).
Acknowledgments
The author is really thankful to the referees for their suggestions which improved this note.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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