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Question: What strategy/ies can be used for evaluating integrals of the type $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{(ax^2+bx+c)\sqrt{px^2+qx+r}}$ where $a,b,c,p,q,r$ are real numbers and neither of $a$ or $p$ is $0$?

Context and Motivation: There are many posts on MSE that are concerned about evaluating integrals of this form or integrals that can be reduced to this form by a suitable choice of substitution, most of them being a specific example. This post is meant to be an abstract duplicate to all such questions. See here.

Some examples:

$1.$ Integrate $\int \frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2-1)^{\frac{3}{2}}}$ via trig substitution

$2.$ Compute the integral $\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2-x+1)\sqrt{x^2+x+1}}$

$3.$ Evaluating $\int {x\over(7x-10-x^2)^{3/2}}dx$

$$\int\frac{x}{(-x^2+7x-10)^\frac32}\mathrm dx\overset{t=\frac1x}{=}\text{sgn}x\int\frac{\mathrm dt}{(-10t^2+7t-1)^\frac32}$$

$4.$ Find the indefinite integral $\int {dx \over {(1+x^2) \sqrt{1-x^2}}} $

$5.$ Solve an integral $\int\frac{1}{(1+x^2)\sqrt{x^2-1}}dx$

$6.$ Evaluation of $ \int\frac{1}{2x\sqrt{1-x}\cdot \sqrt{2-x+\sqrt{1-x}}}dx$

$7.$ Calculate the given indefinite integral

$8.$ Solve $\int \frac{dz}{(A^2+z^2)\sqrt{2A^2+z^2}}$

$9.$ Integrate $\int \frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2-1)^{\frac{3}{2}}}$ via trig substitution

$10.$ Integrate $\int\frac{1}{(x^2-3)\sqrt{x^2+2}}dx$

$11.$ Integral $I=\int \frac{dx}{(x^2+1)\sqrt{x^2-4}} $

$12.$ Integration problem related to physics problem

$13.$ calculation of $\int^{1}_{0}\frac{1}{\sqrt{x-x^2}(x^2+3x+2)}dx$

$14.$ Evaluating trigonometric integrals of the form $\int \frac{C \; d \theta}{ \sin \theta \sqrt{\sin^2 \theta - C }}$

$15.$ Any neat way to solve the integral $\int_{-a}^a \int_{-b}^b\frac{1}{\left(x^2+y^2+z^2\right)^{3/2}}\,dxdy$?

$16.$ Evaluating $\int \frac{1}{(1-x^2)^{3/2}} dx$


This is an SAQ post. Any suggestions, comments or alternative approaches are highly appreciated.

Integreek
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    FYI, I thought this was a useful thing to do (your question -- especially tracking down similar integrals -- and answer). While I'm here, I'll mention that this can be found in some of the books I list in my answer to Sources for reading about integration techniques. For example, this and similar integrals can be found extensively discussed on pp. 275-314 of Volume I of A Treatise on the Integral Calculus by Joseph Edwards (1921). – Dave L. Renfro Feb 06 '25 at 13:22
  • @DaveL.Renfro thanks for all the references. I didn't know about them. I was pretty much sure that the technique to integrate $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2+ax+c^2)\sqrt{x^2+bx+c^2}}$ that I discovered heuristically was out there already. – Integreek Feb 06 '25 at 13:42
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    An Euler substitution will convert it into an integral of a rational function with a very nontrivial quartic polynomial in the denominator. This makes for a great opportunity to show off a “practical application” of solving quartic equations to students wondering what use learning it has. – David H Mar 02 '25 at 13:46

1 Answers1

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First of all, convert the integral into the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2+ax+b)\sqrt{\pm x^2+cx+d}}$. Now, $3$ cases arise:

$\textbf{Case 1, }a^2>4b:$ Let $x^2+ax+b=(x-\alpha)(x-\beta)$, then decompose $\dfrac1{x^2+ax+b}$ into partial fractions to get $2$ integrals of the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{L\sqrt Q}$. A quick way to finish off such an integral is to substitute $L=\dfrac1t$.

$\textbf{Case 2, }a^2=4b:$ Since the derivative of $\dfrac1{x+\frac{a}2}$ is present in the integrand, substitute it as $t$ to get an integral of the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{t}{\sqrt Q}\mathrm dt$. Now, write the numerator as $AQ'(t)+B$ for suitable constants $A$ and $B$.

$\textbf{Case 3, }a^2<4b:$ $2$ sub-cases can be made for this situation:

$\underline{\text{Sub-case $1$, $a=c$ if the sign of $x^2$ in the root is $+$, otherwise $a=-c$ :}}$ Substitute $t=x+\frac{a}2$. Then, we end up with the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dt}{(t^2+A)\sqrt{\pm t^2+B}}$ which is discussed below after the second sub-case.

$\underline{\text{Sub-case $2$, $a\neq c$ if the sign of $x^2$ in the root is $+$, otherwise $a\neq -c$ :}}$ Substitute $t=x-\alpha$ such that the constant terms of both the quadratics in $t$ become the same if the sign of $x^2$ in the root is $+$, otherwise the constant terms should be additive inverses of each other. Note that the constant term of the outer quadratic has to be positive as $a^2\ge0\implies b>0$. So, let it be $C^2, C>0$.

Now, the integral becomes of the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dt}{(t^2+At+C^2)\sqrt{\pm t^2+Bt+\pm C^2}}$. For simplicity, let $t>0$ so that we can write $\sqrt{t^2}=t$. The procedure can then be extended for negative $t$ by substituting $t=-u$.

Dividing and multiplying by $t^{-\frac32}$ gives $$\int\frac{t^{-\frac32}\mathrm dt}{\left(t+\frac{C^2}t+A\right)\sqrt{\pm t\pm\frac{C^2}t+B}}$$ $$=\frac1C\int\frac{\mathrm d\left(\sqrt t-\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)}{\left(\left(\sqrt t-\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)^2+A+2C\right)\sqrt{\pm\left(\sqrt t-\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)^2+B\pm2C}}-\frac1C\int\frac{\mathrm d\left(\sqrt t+\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)}{\left(\left(\sqrt t+\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)^2+A-2C\right)\sqrt{\pm\left(\sqrt t+\frac{C}{\sqrt t}\right)^2+B\mp2C}}$$

I discovered this technique when I pondered if there was a way to integrate such functions similar to integrating $\dfrac1{x^4+kx^2+1}$ and $\dfrac{x^2}{x^4+kx^2+1}$, where we divide the numerator and the denominator by $x^2$ and split them as $\frac12\mathrm d\left(x-\frac1x\right)\pm\frac12\mathrm d\left(x+\frac1x\right)$.

So, in both cases, the integral can be converted to the form $\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{(x^2+a)\sqrt{\pm x^2+b}}$. There are multiple ways to integrate this. For simplicity, let's break this situation into $2$ cases for handling the sign of the inner quadratic:

a) If the sign is $+$,

  • Substitute $t=\dfrac{\sqrt{x^2+b}}x$.

Intuition for this substitution can be developed by substituting $x=\frac1t$. Then, for $t>0$, we have the derivative of $\dfrac{t}{\sqrt{t^2+\frac1b}}$ in the integrand.

  • If $a>0$, substitute $x=\sqrt a\tan\theta$ and if $a<0$, substitute $x=\sqrt{-a}\tanh\theta$ for $x\in\left[-\sqrt{-a},\sqrt{-a}\right]$ and $x=\sqrt{-a}\coth\theta$ for $x\in\mathbb R-\left[-\sqrt{-a},\sqrt{-a}\right]$.
  • If $b>0$, substitute $x=\sqrt b\sinh\theta$ and if $b<0$, substitute $x=\sqrt{-b}\cosh\theta$ choosing the sign of $\theta$ to be the same as $\cosh x$ is bijective only in $[0,\infty)$ and $(-\infty, 0]$.

b) If the sign is $-$,

  • Substitute $t=\dfrac{\sqrt{-x^2+b}}x$.

Intuition for this substitution can be developed by substituting $x=\frac1t$. Then, for $t>0$, we have the derivative of $\dfrac{t}{\sqrt{t^2-\frac1b}}$ in the integrand.

  • If $a>0$, substitute $x=\sqrt a\tan\theta$ and if $a<0$, substitute $x=\sqrt{-a}\tanh\theta$ for $x\in\left[-\sqrt{-a},\sqrt{-a}\right]$ and $x=\sqrt{-a}\coth\theta$ for $x\in\mathbb R-\left[-\sqrt{-a},\sqrt{-a}\right]$.
  • Substitute $x=\sqrt b\sin\theta$ or $x=\sqrt b\cos\theta$ as $b$ has to be positive.
Integreek
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