Question #8e5b5

1 Answer
Sep 12, 2015

We are trying to find the area under a curve.

Explanation:

Suppose we have a function f(x)=2x:

graph{2x [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

The integral from measures the area between this curve and the x-axis.

For instance, the integral from 0 to 1 tells us how big the following space is:

enter image source here

When we say "integral from 0 to 1" we mean look at the curve between where x=0 and x=1.

In this case, when x=0, y=0, and when x=1, y=2. So the space between the curve and the x-axis is a triangle with base 1 and height 2, so the area and the integral both equal 1.