# integrating e

• April 27th 2010, 05:15 AM
darksupernova
integrating e
Hello, ive tried everything i know how to do and i cant do this(!):

$\int{e^{x^2}}dx$

Its not very clear but thats e to the power of x squared.

Thanks!
• April 27th 2010, 05:17 AM
mr fantastic
Quote:

Originally Posted by darksupernova
Hello, ive tried everything i know how to do and i cant do this(!):

$\int{e^{x^2}}dx$

Its not very clear but thats e to the power of x squared.

Thanks!

It cannot be done using a finite number of elementary functions (this can be proved, by the way). An answer can be found using the Error Function erf(x): Error function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• April 27th 2010, 08:56 AM
guess
yup.. this is a very interesting question.. it cannot be solved directly due the the reason provided above.. however, the ans can be approximate by converting e^(x^2) to some polynomial using lagrange interpolation or using taylor series. It should be able to get some very close approximation
• April 28th 2010, 12:03 AM
darksupernova
wow thanks very much guys! wondered why i was struggeling so much!

Thanks ;)