Question

Posing the doubt of @eliassaab WITHOUT his/her permission:

The syllabuses should not include questions like \(\int\frac{dx}{1-x^4}\) anymore, now even the computers can work it out.

Answer 1

yes completely agree :)

Answer 2

post this on openstudy feedback. Computers can work it out, but not everyone knows about wolfram alph show steps lol

Answer 3

Yes, please post this in feedback. I'd rather not deal with stuff people just need to plug into computers. Wolfram Alpha is their hero.

Answer 4

tbh I don't think it's going to change much. saying that people shouldn't post integrals like that is not much different from asking people not to post basic algebra questions, like 2x^2+3=5x. Unfortunately I don't see a way around this...

Answer 5

I edited the question.

Answer 6

To avoid misunderstanding

Answer 7

hey wait a second, u have changed the @eliassaab 's integral

Answer 8

syllabi of what?

Answer 9

Of calculus

Answer 10

Now it's no use teaching people to do integration, computers can work them all out now

Answer 11

OOOH. they should, in my opinion.

Answer 12

you can't learn advanced integration techniques if you don't know the basic ones, and what's to say you won't always have a CAS on hand with those capabilities?

Answer 13

That's true. Most people don;t read that sort of stuff. We'll still get questions similar to the one I jut got asking how to find perimeter, area, etc. Those questions, although easy, are a little bit better since they use forumlas, but as for the complex equations that you can put into wolfram, I wish people realized they could figure it out themselves. I highly doubt anyone will take the initiative to avoid doing so even if we put in big red letters DONT ASK SILLY QUESTIONS. Nobody reads all the rules and that's what's pitiful.

Answer 14

that's the same thing as saying I shouldn't learn proper english because I always have spellcheck

Answer 15

besides, who has to debug a flawed computer? you gotta have knowledge of the content...

Answer 16

@inkyvoyd but when im online, spellcheck no fix grammar problems has me.

Answer 17

yeah @Confusionist , and wolfram alpha "incorrectly" solves integration problems when people don't know how to type them in xD

Answer 18

True true. x)

Answer 19

@kc_kennylau 1/1-x^4 can be easily done. however eliassaab's question was very hard, it was 1/1+x^4.
he was saying, evaluating integral of above wud take very long time. So, knowing that it can be done is enough; we dont need to actually work it all the way :)

Answer 20

oh sorry, i didn't check before posting lol

Answer 21

@ganeshie8 I have done that integral before. 1/(1+x^4) is an intermediate integral one gets when they try to evaluate the integral of sqrt(tan x)

Answer 22

in fact, I made a little powerpoint presentation for a project to do just that.

Answer 23

wow ! i remember working this aswell xD

Answer 24

well actually it's slightly different, but the denominator is the same

Answer 25

looks beautiful XD
you've squeezed it in less than 10 slides... this is for some seminar presentation is it ? :)

Answer 26

thanks! Last school year at the end of my calculus class we had to do review of the material before AP testing. our group was assigned integrals, and I chose the hardest topics trig sub and partial fractions because I knew the perfect integral. I put together this powerpoint for review, and I'm proud to say I did the integral on paper before turning into the project :3

Answer 27

also, I believe @lgbasallote is responsible for first introducing me to the problem a few years ago.

Answer 28

nice :)) and the work/presenting way looks professional...
@lgbasallote is maintaining low profile... not seeing him from last couple of months :|

Answer 29

yeah wonder what he's doing, I haven't heard from him in maybe a year or more