Can one say "take an integral" instead of the usual "calculate an integral"? What other options are there?

Question

Russians often use the formulation "take an integral". Now I noticed it in an article, written by a Russian speaker and I can't recall I have ever encountered it in English. Is it a possible alternative to the basic "calculate an integral"? What other options are there? "Evaluate", "find", ...?

I have also asked this question on English Language & Usage Stack Exchange.

In the comments, I was rightfully asked for more context:

The thing is, Russian speakers use the formulation "take" (the integral) really in the sense of "calculate" (the integral) and not only in the sense of "consider" (the integral), which I feel is meant when English speakers use "take" in this context. E.g., Russian speakers say: "We will succeed to take the integral.". (У нас получиться взять этот интеграл.)

Taking an integral seems more like something that happens before doing things that are best left unmentioned. ;) — , Jun 19 '23 at 16:10
@MatthewLeingang unfortunately, now we cannot vote to close this question as a duplicate to yours because this is math.stackexchange and you asked your question on matheducators.se. — Adam Rubinson, Jun 19 '23 at 16:20
I'm not saying the question should be closed as a duplicate to mine; I'm only adding it for context. — Matthew Leingang, Jun 19 '23 at 16:22
@littleO I've expanded the question for more context. I can update more, if things are still not clear enough. — wondering, Jun 20 '23 at 08:51
I don't think it matters. It's just like asking "May I use the bathroom" vs. "Can I use the bathroom". — Accelerator, Jun 21 '23 at 01:08

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '23 at 16:05

I've encountered / used this. Roughly: "so, we have this expression... now take its integral to obtain ..."

We can evaluate an integral - this is probably the most formally correct. It's fair to say 'find' too; "compute", "calculate", "derive" (if there is a general result)...

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 19 '23 at 16:07

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I have seen some people, who say it roughly like:

"Now, take the integral", "Evaluate the value of I = {some integral}", "Calculate the value of this {some integral}", etc..

answered Jun 19 '23 at 16:07

Subrat Panda

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“Evaluate the value of...” sounds redundant, since evaluate and value have the same root. – Matthew Leingang Jun 19 '23 at 16:26
Uhm yeah, I know that but you know, I was just thinking that one can ask in this way certainly – Subrat Panda Jun 21 '23 at 16:16

Can one say "take an integral" instead of the usual "calculate an integral"? What other options are there?

2 Answers2