Approximating the Area Under a Curve Using the Midpoint Method Introduction The signed area
A
between the curve
y=f(x)
and the
x
-axis from
a
to
b
can be approximated by summing the individual areas of
n
equal-width rectangles according to the formula:
A~~A_(n)=\sum_(i=1)^n f(x_(i))\Delta x=(f(x_(1))+f(x_(2))+cdots+f(x_(n)))\Delta x
where
\Delta x=(b-a)/(n) and x_(i)=a+(2i-1)/(2)\Delta x, so
x_(1)=a+(\Delta x)/(2),x_(2)=a+(3\Delta x)/(2),dots,x_(n-1)=a+(2(n-1)-1)/(2)\Delta x,x_(n)=b-(\Delta x)/(2)
This method for obtaining the approximated area
A_(m)
is referred to as the Midpoint Method, as the heights of the rectangles are determined by the function value at the midpoint of each rectangle. A depiction of the Midpoint Method with 10 rectangles is provided below for
f(x)=x^(2)
on
0,1
: