Numerical integration

Numerical Integration is when you try to work out the area under a curve. Imagine the graph is a hilly landscape and you want to know how big the landscape is. To figure this out, you need to measure the area under the curve.

Think of the curve as a piece of string. Put your finger on one end of the string and hold it down. Then, using a ruler, measure the length of the string from where your finger is to the other end. This gives you the length of the string.

Now to work out the size of the landscape, do the same thing with your finger and ruler, but hold your finger at a different spot and measure the length of the string from there to the other end. Keep doing this, moving your finger to different points and measuring the length of the string between them.

The total of all the lengths you measured gives you the size of the landscape. That’s numerical integration!