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Step 4Integrate!
An integral is essentially the area between a curve and the x-axis. There's also a "negative area" when the function is negative. The integral is the net area beneath a curve. That should be pretty easy to calculate.
We're finding the area using a method of approximation known as Riemann sums. Basically we're drawing a lot of rectangles that approximate the shape of our curve. If we add up the area of each rectangle, we know (more or less) the area beneath the curve. The picture below is worth a thousand words.
In cell E1 type in "=C1*$A$2" and drag this down. These are the "rectangles" that we need to add up.
In cell F1 type in "=SUM($E$1:E1)" and drag the cell down. What you are doing here is adding up all the rectangles from cell one to cell x. This is the indefinite integral. Go ahead and graph it on your plot. All integrals are related by a constant. If you had typed in "=SUM($E$1:E1)+200" in the last step instead, it would still be the integral you're looking for. It doesn't really matter what constant you use.
We're finding the area using a method of approximation known as Riemann sums. Basically we're drawing a lot of rectangles that approximate the shape of our curve. If we add up the area of each rectangle, we know (more or less) the area beneath the curve. The picture below is worth a thousand words.
In cell E1 type in "=C1*$A$2" and drag this down. These are the "rectangles" that we need to add up.
In cell F1 type in "=SUM($E$1:E1)" and drag the cell down. What you are doing here is adding up all the rectangles from cell one to cell x. This is the indefinite integral. Go ahead and graph it on your plot. All integrals are related by a constant. If you had typed in "=SUM($E$1:E1)+200" in the last step instead, it would still be the integral you're looking for. It doesn't really matter what constant you use.
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