
406 • Techniques of Integration, Part One
The quadratic x
2
−5x + 9 has discriminant (−5)
2
−4(9) = −11; because this
is negative, the quadratic can’t be factored. So we’re done with step 2.
Step 3—the form: we have two factors, x
2
and x
2
−5x + 9. Don’t think of
the first factor x
2
as a quadratic; instead, think of it as the square of a linear
factor. It might be better to write x
2
as (x −0)
2
to clarify this point. So the
x
2
factor contributes
A
x
2
+
B
x
to the form. On the other hand, the factor x
2
− 5x + 9 contributes
Cx + D
x
2
− 5x + 9
.
Altogether, we have
8x
2
− 19x + 18
x
2
(x
2
− 5x + 9)
=
A
x
2
+
B
x
+
Cx + D
x
2
− 5x + 9
.
Step 4—evaluate constants: now we have to find the values of A, B, C,
and D. First we multiply both sides of the above equation by the denominator
x
2
(x
2
− 5x + 9) to get
8x
2
− 19x + 18 = A(x
2
− 5x + 9) + Bx(x
2
− 5x + 9) + (Cx + D)x
2
.
Notice that the bits of the denominator that appear in each term of the right-
hand side are precisely the bits that don’t appear in the original form. For
example, when you multiply the B/x term by x
2
(x
2
−5x + 9), you knock out
a factor of x to get Bx(x
2
− 5x + 9).
Let’s try substituting a clever value of x in the above equation. The only
value of x that will kill off much of this equation is x = 0. If we put x = 0,
the above equation becomes
18 = A(9),
so we immediately know that A = 2. We still need to find three more con-
stants, so we’d better equate coefficients of three different powers of x. Let’s
start off by expanding the above equation, then grouping together the different
powers of x:
8x
2
− 19x + 18 = Ax
2
− 5Ax + 9A + Bx
3
− 5Bx
2
+ 9Bx + Cx
3
+ Dx
2
= (B + C)x
3
+ (A − 5B + D)x
2
+ (−5A + 9B)x + 9A.
Now we can equate coefficients of x
3
, x
2
and x, one at a time:
coefficient of x
3
: 0 = B + C
coefficient of x
2
: 8 = A − 5B + D
coefficient of x
1
: −19 = −5A + 9B.
Note that the coefficient of x
3
on the left-hand side is 0, since the left-hand
side 8x
2
− 19x + 18 doesn’t have an x
3
term. (By the way, if you equate the
constant coefficients, you get 18 = 9A, which is the same equation we got
when we substituted x = 0 above. Can you see why this happens?)