Two young mathematicians discuss how tricky integrals are puzzles.

Check out this dialogue between two calculus students (based on a true story):
Devyn
Yo Riley, is it just me, or are integrals kind of fun?
Riley
I always feel accomplished when I finish one.
Devyn
I know! Also, even though antiderivatives are difficult, we can always check our work by taking the derivative.
Riley
So awesome!
Devyn
But something is bothering me. When we are doing substitution, we have to find and such that How do we choose and ?
Riley
Well, never ever pick , this doesn’t change anything!
Devyn
And never ever pick to be the entire integrand, this doesn’t help either.
Riley
Somehow we must ‘‘see’’ one function ‘‘nested’’ inside of another.
Devyn
I’m not sure there’s an easy path to doing, this, I think it’s gonna take practice.

In the problems that follow, we will be using the substitution formula While you may use a slightly different method to compute your integrals, the skills developed by answering the problems below will help you in your quest to conquer calculus.

In your own words, explain why Devyn and Riley claim we should never pick or to be the entire integrand.
The goal of substitution is to make the integral easier to do. Your choices for and should make things easier, not harder!

Unless the derivative of is , choosing to be the entire integrand means that you don’t have any part of the integrand left to be the derivative of . Choosing means that , meaning that you haven’t simplified the integral at all.