% compute integral % % / infty dx % | --------- % / 0 1 + x^4 % % approximately by trapezoid rule L = 1.0e3; % actually integrate from 0 to L; f(L) < 10^-12 N = 1.0e5; % number of subintervals dx = L/N; x=0:dx:L; y = 1./(1+x.^4); c=2.0*ones(size(x)); %coeffs in trapezoid rule c(1)=1; c(end)=1; format long g % graph with "plot(x,y)" or "semilogy(x,y)" disp('trapezoid rule gives') 0.5*dx*sum(c*y') % trap rule result: 1.11072073420626 disp('exact answer by contour integration was pi/sqrt(8) =') pi/sqrt(8) % exact: 1.11072073453959