Question

Evaluate Dx / ^ 9-8x - x2^

Answer 1

It depends on what you mean by the delimiting carats "^"...

Since you use parentheses appropriately in the answer choices, I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume something like "^x^" stands for $\sqrt x$.

In that case, you want to find the antiderivative,

$\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{\sqrt{9-8x-x^2}}$

Complete the square in the denominator:

$9-8x-x^2=25-(16+8x+x^2)=5^2-(x+4)^2$

Now substitute $x+4=5\sin y$, so that $\mathrm dx=5\cos y\,\mathrm dy$. Then

$\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{\sqrt{9-8x-x^2}}=\int\frac{5\cos y}{\sqrt{5^2-(5\sin y)^2}}\,\mathrm dy$

which simplifies to

$\displaystyle\int\frac{5\cos y}{5\sqrt{1-\sin^2y}}\,\mathrm dy=\int\frac{\cos y}{\sqrt{\cos^2y}}\,\mathrm dy$

Now, recall that $\sqrt{x^2}=|x|$. But we want the substitution we made to be reversible, so that

$x+4=5\sin y\iff y=\sin^{-1}\left(\dfrac{x+4}5\right)$

which implies that $-\dfrac\pi2\le y\le\dfrac\pi2$. (This is the range of the inverse sine function.)

Under these conditions, we have $\cos y\ge0$, which lets us reduce $\sqrt{\cos^2y}=|\cos y|=\cos y$. Finally,

$\displaystyle\int\frac{\cos y}{\cos y}\,\mathrm dy=\int\mathrm dy=y+C$

and back-substituting to get this in terms of $x$ yields

$\displaystyle\int\frac{\mathrm dx}{\sqrt{9-8x-x^2}}=\sin^{-1}\left(\frac{x+4}5\right)+C$