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In mathematics, a Riemann sum is a certain kind of approximation of an integral by a finite sum. It is named after nineteenth century German mathematician Bernhard Riemann . One very common application is in numerical integration , i.e., approximating the area of functions or lines on a graph, where it is also known as the rectangle rule .
Loosely speaking, the Riemann integral is the limit of the Riemann sums of a function as the partitions get finer. If the limit exists then the function is said to be integrable (or more specifically Riemann-integrable). The Riemann sum can be made as close as desired to the Riemann integral by making the partition fine enough.
The trapezoidal rule may be viewed as the result obtained by averaging the left and right Riemann sums, and is sometimes defined this way. The integral can be even better approximated by partitioning the integration interval, applying the trapezoidal rule to each subinterval, and summing the results. In practice, this "chained" (or "composite ...
Numerical integration methods can generally be described as combining evaluations of the integrand to get an approximation to the integral. The integrand is evaluated at a finite set of points called integration points and a weighted sum of these values is used to approximate the integral. The integration points and weights depend on the ...
Discrete integral calculus is the study of the definitions, properties, and applications of the Riemann sums. The process of finding the value of a sum is called integration . In technical language, integral calculus studies a certain linear operator .
The harmonic number H n can be interpreted as a Riemann sum of the integral: + = (+). The n th harmonic number is about as large as the natural logarithm of n . The reason is that the sum is approximated by the integral ∫ 1 n 1 x d x , {\displaystyle \int _{1}^{n}{\frac {1}{x}}\,dx,} whose value is ln n .
A partition of an interval being used in a Riemann sum. The partition itself is shown in grey at the bottom, with the norm of the partition indicated in red. In mathematics, a partition of an interval [a, b] on the real line is a finite sequence x 0, x 1, x 2, …, x n of real numbers such that a = x 0 < x 1 < x 2 < … < x n = b.
It can be used to approximate integrals by finite sums, or conversely to evaluate finite sums and infinite series using integrals and the machinery of calculus. For example, many asymptotic expansions are derived from the formula, and Faulhaber's formula for the sum of powers is an immediate consequence.