Trapezoidal Rule of

Integration

Authors: Autar Kaw, Charlie Barker

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.e
du
Transforming Numerical Methods Education for STEM
Undergraduates

http://
12/29/24 numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu 1
 Trapezoidal Rule of
Integration

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.
edu
 What is Integration
b

f ( x )dx
Integration: y
a

f(x)
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 a b x

b= upper limit of
3 integration http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 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 )
a

and f n ( x ) a0  a1 x  ...  an  1 x n  1  an x n

4 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Basis of Trapezoidal Rule
Then the integral of that function is approximated
by the integral of that nth order polynomial.

b b

f ( x ) f n ( x )
a a

Trapezoidal Rule assumes n=1, that is, the

area under the linear polynomial,
b
 f ( a )  f ( b )
f ( x )dx ( b  a ) 
a
2

5 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Derivation of the Trapezoidal
Rule

6 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Method Derived From
Geometry
b

f ( x )dx
1

The area under the y

a

f(x)
curve is a
trapezoid. The
b integral
f ( x)dx  Area of
a
trapezoid
f1(x)
1
 ( Sum of parallel sides )( height )
2
1
  f ( b )  f ( a )( b  a )
2
 f ( a )  f ( b )
( b  a )  a b x
 2
Figure 2: Geometric Representation

7 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Example 1
The vertical distance covered by a rocket from t=8
to t=30 seconds is given by:

30
  140000  
x   2000 ln    9 .8t  dt
8  140000  2100t  

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).

8 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution
 f ( a )  f ( b )
a) I ( b  a ) 
 2
a 8 b 30
 140000 
f ( t ) 2000 ln    9.8t
 140000  2100t 

 140000 
f ( 8 ) 2000 ln    9.8( 8 ) 177.27 m / s
 140000  2100( 8 )

 140000 
f ( 30 ) 2000 ln    9.8( 30 ) 901.67 m / s
 140000  2100( 30 )

9 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
 177.27  901.67 
a) I ( 30  8 ) 
 2

11868 m

b)The exact value of the above integral is

30
  140000  
x   2000 ln    9 .8t  dt 11061 m
8  140000  2100t  

10 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
b) Et True Value  Approximate Value
11061  11868
 807 m

c) The absolute relative true error

, t , would be

11061  11868
t  100 7.2959%
11061

11 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 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

f ( t )dt  f ( t )dt  f ( t )dt

8 8 19

 f ( 8 )  f ( 19 )  f ( 19 )  f ( 30 )
( 19  8 )   ( 30  19 ) 
 2   2
12 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 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 

8
f ( t ) dt (19  8)  2   ( 30  19 )  2 

11266 m
13 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 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 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Multiple Segment Trapezoidal
Rule
y
f(x)
Divide into equal
segments as shown in
Figure 4. Then the width
of each segment
b  a is:
h
n
The integral I is:

b
I  f ( x )dx
a a b x
b a b a b a
a a2 a 3
4 4 4

Figure 4: Multiple (n=4) Segment Trapezoidal

Rule

15 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Multiple Segment Trapezoidal
Rule
The integral I can be broken into h integrals
b a h
as: a  2 h a ( n  1 ) h b

f ( x )dx  f ( x )dx  f ( x )dx  ...  f ( x )dx  f ( x )dx

a a a h a ( n  2 ) h a ( n  1 ) h

Applying Trapezoidal rule on each segment gives:

b
b a n  1  

f ( x )dx 2n  f ( a )  2  f ( a  ih )  f ( b )
a  i 1 

16 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Example 2
The vertical distance covered by a rocket from 8 to 30
seconds is given by:
30
  140000  
x   2000 ln    9.8t  dt
8  140000  2100t  

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

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

17 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution
a) The solution using 2-segment Trapezoidal rule is

b a n  1  
I  f ( a )  2  f ( a  ih )  f ( b )
2n   i 1  

n 2 a 8 b 30

b a 30  8
h  11
n 2

18 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
Then:
30  8  2  1  
I  f ( 8 )  2  f ( a  ih )  f ( 30 )
2( 2 )   i 1  
22
  f ( 8 )  2 f ( 19 )  f ( 30 )
4

22
 177.27  2( 484.75 )  901.67
4

11266 m

19 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
b) The exact value of the above integral is
30
  140000  
x   2000 ln    9 . 8t  dt 11061 m
8  140000  2100t  

so the true error is

E t True Value  Approximat e Value

11061  11266

20 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
The absolute relative true error
, t , would be

True Error
t  100
True Value

11061  11266
 100
11061

1.8534%

21 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
Table 1 gives the values
n Value Et t % a %
obtained using multiple
segment Trapezoidal rule 1 11868 -807 7.296 ---
for 2 11266 -205 1.853 5.343
30 3 11153 -91.4 0.8265 1.019
  140000  
x   2000 ln    9.8t  dt 4 11113 -51.5 0.4655 0.3594
8  140000  2100t  
5 11094 -33.0 0.2981 0.1669
6 11084 -22.9 0.2070 0.0908
Exact Value=11061 m 2
7 11078 -16.8 0.1521 0.0548
2
Table 1: Multiple Segment Trapezoidal Rule
8
Values 11074 -12.9 0.1165 0.0356
0

22 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Example 3
Use Multiple Segment Trapezoidal Rule to
find the area under the curve
300 x
f(x) from x 0 to x 10
1 ex

Using two segments, we get 10  0

h 5 and
2

300( 0 ) 300( 5 ) 300( 10 )

f(0) 0
0 f (5)  5
10.039 f ( 10 )  10
0.136
1 e 1 e 1 e

23 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution
Then:

b a n  1  
I  f ( a )  2  f ( a  ih )  f ( b )
2n   i 1  

10  0  2  1  
  f ( 0 )  2  f ( 0  5 )  f ( 10 )
2( 2 )   i 1  

10 10
  f ( 0 )  2 f ( 5 )  f ( 10 )  0  2( 10.039 )  0.136
4 4

50.535

24 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
So what is the true value of this integral?
10
300 x
 x
dx 246.59
01 e

Making the absolute relative true error:

246.59  50.535
t  100%
246.59

79.506%

25 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 Solution (cont)
Table 2: Values obtained using Multiple Segment
Trapezoidal Rule for: 10 300 x
 x
dx
01 e

n Approximate
Et t
Value
1 0.681 245.91 99.724%
2 50.535 196.05 79.505%
4 170.61 75.978 30.812%
8 227.04 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%

26 http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 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/trap
ezoidal_rule.html
 2024/2025 Assignment

Due 9 December 2024

Write Python code to:

1)Plot the graph for the equation in Slide

8
2) Use Trapezoidal Rule to calculate the
area of the graph from point a = 8 to
point b = 30 using multiple iterations(n
= 1 to n = 20); calculating the absolute
28
relative true error for every iteration
http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
 THE END

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu