[Math] Evaluating $\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{\sqrt{\sin x}}{\sqrt{\sin x}+\sqrt{\cos x}}\, \mathrm{d}x$

calculusdefinite integralsintegrationtrigonometry

I have to evaluate:

$$\int_{0}^{\pi/2}\frac{\sqrt{\sin x}}{\sqrt{\sin x}+\sqrt{\cos x}}\, \mathrm{d}x. $$
I can't get the right answer! So please help me out!

Best Answer

Let $I$ denote the integral and consider the substitution $u= \frac{\pi }{2} - x.$ Then $I = \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi }{2}} \frac{\sqrt{\cos u}}{\sqrt{\cos u } + \sqrt{\sin u }} du$ and $2I = \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi }{2}} \frac{\sqrt{\cos u} + \sqrt{\sin u }}{\sqrt{\cos u } + \sqrt{\sin u }} du = \frac{\pi }{2}.$ Hence $I = \frac{\pi }{4}.$

In general, $ \displaystyle\int_0^a f(x) dx = \displaystyle\int_0^a f(a-x) $ $dx$ whenever $f$ is integrable, and $\displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi }{2}} \frac{\cos^a x}{\cos^a x + \sin^a x } dx = \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi }{2}} \frac{\sin^a x}{\cos^a x + \sin^a x } dx = \frac{\pi }{4}$ for $a>0$ (same trick.)