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Which is better, a trapezoidal sum or a rectangular sum?


Asked by Alexander Ramsey on Dec 12, 2021 FAQ



Trapezoidal sums actually give a better approximation, in general, than rectangular sums that use the same number of subdivisions. The area under a curve is commonly approximated using rectangles (e.g. left, right, and midpoint Riemann sums), but it can also be approximated by trapezoids. Trapezoidal sums actually give a better approximation ...
One may also ask,
In trapezoidal rule, we use trapezoids to approximate the area under the curve whereas in Riemann sums we use rectangles to find area under the curve, in case of integration.
Next, Key idea: By using trapezoids (aka the "trapezoid rule") we can get more accurate approximations than by using rectangles (aka "Riemann sums"). Let's check it out by using three trapezoids to approximate the area under the function on the interval .
Furthermore,
The midpoint rule uses the midpoint of the rectangles for the estimate. A midpoint rule is a much better estimate of the area under the curve than either a left- or right- sum. As a rule of thumb, midpoint sums are twice as good than trapezoid estimates.
In this manner,
First, a note on the area of trapezoids. the area of the trapezoid is the average of the areas of two rectangles. Now we'll explore sums using trapezoids through the examples.