Problem solving integral?

Hi all,

I want to calculate the integral of my function f(x) but I get the error of Explicit integral could not be found. My codes are:

syms x

B=0.5;

C=2;

D=1.2;

S=1;

f=2.^(-log2(1/B)*(((S-x)./C).^D));

int(f,x)

can anybody help me please with it?

Thank you in advance Sasi

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

There is no closed form expression for that integral that I have been able to find. You will need to use numeric integration.

Note: using floating point powers in an integral is always a problem. Does 1.2 mean 6/5 or 12/10 or something else? The results are different depending on which representation of the power that you choose. If you use a floating point representation then the results are defined in terms of complex logs that will give complex numbers for negative arguments even in cases where we would normally find a negative real root. For example, (-8)^0.333333 is a complex number, whereas (-8)^(1/3) could be -2