Linked Questions
25 questions linked to/from "Integral milking": working backward to construct nontrivial integrals
89 votes
4 answers
8k views
A strange integral: $\int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} {dx \over 1 + \left(x + \tan x\right)^2} = \pi.$
While browsing on Integral and Series, I found a strange integral posted by @Sangchul Lee. His post doesn't have a response for more than a month, so I decide to post it here. I hope he doesn't mind ...
34 votes
11 answers
10k views
Request for crazy integrals
I'm a sucker for exotic integrals like the one evaluated in this post. I don't really know why, but I just can't get enough of the amazing closed forms that some are able to come up with. So, what ...
51 votes
4 answers
7k views
An astounding identity: $\int_0^{\pi/2}\ln\lvert\sin(mx)\rvert\cdot \ln\lvert\sin(nx)\rvert\, dx$
In this question, user Franklin Pezzuti Dyer gives the following surprising integral evaluation: $$\int_0^{\pi/2}\ln \lvert\sin(mx)\rvert \cdot \ln \lvert\sin(nx)\rvert \, dx = \frac{\pi^3}{24} \frac{...
20 votes
4 answers
2k views
Integral Representation of the Dottie Number
I noticed that a lot of commonly-used mathematical constants that can't be expressed in closed-form can be expressed by integrals, such as $$\pi=\int_{-\infty}^\infty \frac{dx}{x^2+1}$$ and $$\frac{1}{...
10 votes
7 answers
6k views
Smart Integration Tricks [closed]
I am in the last year of my school and studied integration this year I have done several Integration techniques like Integration By substitution By partial fractions By parts Trigo. substitutions ...
20 votes
4 answers
2k views
How do people create difficult, recreational problems (e.g. like those found in competitions such as the IMO)?
Please let me know if this question does not belong here. I have always wondered how the problem-setters for contests like the IMO come up with the problems. The creation of problems like those set at ...
3 votes
4 answers
331 views
How do you prove that $\int_0^\infty \frac{\sin(2x)}{1-e^{2\pi x}} dx = \frac{1}{2-2e^2}$?
I know the following result thanks to the technique "Integral Milking": $$\int_0^\infty \frac{\sin(2x)}{1-e^{2\pi x}} dx = \frac{1}{2-2e^2}$$ So I have a proof (I might list it here later, ...
19 votes
2 answers
670 views
$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{ax^2+bx+c}=\pi$ similar identities
I recently found that $$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{ax^2+bx+c}=\pi$$ iff $$b^2-4ac=-4.$$ I found it by integrating $$I=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{ax^2+bx+c}.$$ If the ...
22 votes
1 answer
1k views
Proof verification: $\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2}=\frac{\pi^2}{6}$
While milking the integral $\int_0^\pi\sin^{-1}\left(\sin x\right)dx$, I believe I may have conceived of a nice proof of $$\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{1}{n^2}=\frac{\pi^2}{6}$$ It makes use of the ...
7 votes
3 answers
474 views
Evaluating a Logarithmic Integral
For everything on this post $n$ and $m$ are positive integers. The other day I found the following integral on the popular post "Integral Milking" and decided to give it a go. $$\large\int_{...
16 votes
3 answers
424 views
A conjecture regarding products of $u(x)=x+\frac1x$
Recently, in a pre-calculus textbook I saw lying around my high school, I saw a problem having something to do with the neat identity $$\left(a+\frac1a\right)\left(b+\frac1b\right)\left(ab+\frac1{ab}...
5 votes
3 answers
516 views
Complex integral with Residues Theorem
I've been going crazy with this complex integral I have to estimate with the Residues Theorem. I'm obviously missing a sign or something else, but I fear I may be committing a conceptual mistake. $$\...
7 votes
2 answers
283 views
Difficult to evaluate $\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{x(x+a)(x+b)(x+c)}{(x^3+2x^2-x-1)^2+(x^2+x-1)^2}dx$
Where $a,b$ and $c$ are consecutive arithmetic terms. We wish to evaluate this integral, $$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{x(x+a)(x+b)(x+c)}{(x^3+2x^2-x-1)^2+(x^2+x-1)^2}\mathrm dx$$ I don't even ...
9 votes
2 answers
540 views
"Milk" the integral $\int_0^\infty\left(\frac{x^2}{x^4+2ax^2+1}\right)^r\frac{x^2+1}{x^2(x^s+1)}\mathrm dx$
I found the following integral in chapter $13$ of Irresistible Integrals, and I would like to see which conclusions you can reach from it. My goal in asking this question is to see which methods I can ...
10 votes
1 answer
358 views
Nontrivial integral representation for Euler's number $e$.
Is there a non-trivial integral yielding $e$? Similar questions have been asked here and here. However, both of these posts asks for integrals yielding elementary functions of $e$, and not necessarily ...