What is an integral?

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I’m in CalcII now and for the life of me cannot wrap my head around integrals. Now we are using things like u-Substitution methods and solving the areas between 2 curves. I can understand how the equations work, but not why because I still cannot picture what an integral is or why it’s important.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s essentially a sum, but only where you know the rule that defines a continuous set, rather than the discrete values.

With a regular sum, you might have 1 + 2 + 3 = 6

With an integral, you might know that the set follows a rule x=y and you can take an integral between two values of x to get the ‘sum’ of the continuous set between certain values.

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