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I don't see how / why one can rewrite the integral as following:

$$\int_{\frac{\pi}{2}+(j-1)\pi}^{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \frac{|\cos(t)|}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \,dt = \frac{2}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} $$

I think this should be rather easy, but I don't see what I'm missing.

s.harp
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    You multiply out the common factor $\pi/2 + j\pi$ on both sides. You are then left with $$\int_{\pi/2 +(j-1)\pi}^{\pi/2+j\pi}|\cos(t)|,dt=2$$ Do you have an idea why that is true? – s.harp Jan 04 '21 at 16:21
  • Yes, I missed to see that this is the same as the integral of cos(x) over the interval $[\frac{-\pi}{2}, \frac{\pi}{2}]$. Thanks! –  Jan 04 '21 at 16:24

4 Answers4

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Because

$$\int_{\frac{\pi}{2}+(j-1)\pi}^{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} |\cos(t)| \,dt = 2 $$ for any $j \in \mathbb Z$.

1

HINT:

Note that $\int_{(j-1)\pi+\pi/2}^{j\pi+\pi/2}|\cos(x) |\,dx=2$. And the denominator of the integrand is a constant with respect to the variable of integration.

Mark Viola
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1

Get the denominator outside the integral, as it's a constant.

You are integrating $|\cos(x)|$, which is $\pi$-periodic, on an interval on length $\pi$. The result is the same as

$$\int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2}\cos(x)dx=[\sin x]_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2}=2$$

0

We can write \begin{align*} \int_{\frac{\pi}{2}+(j-1)\pi}^{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \frac{|\cos(t)|}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \ dt & = \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{\frac{-\pi}{2}+j\pi}^{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi}|\cos(t)| \ dt\\ &\overset{\color{blue}{u=t-j\pi} }{=} \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}|\cos(u+j\pi)| \ du\\ \end{align*} and if $j$ is an integer, we know that $$|\cos(u + j\pi)| = |(-1)^j \cos(u)| = |\cos(u)| $$ so we get\begin{align*} \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}|\cos(u+j\pi)| \ du & = \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}|\cos(u)| \ du \end{align*} and on the interval $\left( -\frac{\pi}{2}, \frac{\pi}{2} \right)$ we know that cosine is positive, so on this interval (which is the one we're integrating on) we get $|\cos(u)| = \cos(u)$. And lastly we see \begin{align*} \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}|\cos(u)| \ du & = \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\cos(u) \ du\\ & = \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \sin(u)\Biggr|_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\\ & = \frac{1}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \left(1 - (-1)\right)\\ & = \frac{2}{\frac{\pi}{2}+j\pi} \end{align*}

Robert Lee
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