[Math] use fundamental theorem of calculus to find a function $f(x)$ and a number $a$

calculusderivativesintegration

I thought I understood the fundamental theorem of calculus but I'm confused on the following problem..

Use the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to find a function $f(x)$ and
a number $a$ so that $a+\int_{4}^{x}\frac{f(t)}{t^2}dt=2\sqrt{x}$ for all $x>0$.

I don't have the answer to check but what I did was take the derivative of both sides of the equation which means $a$ could be any number because it's derivative will be zero and the derivative of the integral is $\frac{f(x)}{x^2}$ and the derivative of the right hand side is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}$ so I determined $f(x)$ would have to equal $x^{3/2}$

Am I correct? or could someone please explain the method to solve this problem. Thanks!

Best Answer

Your reasoning is correct. Differentiate both sides of the given equation (using the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to differentiate the term with the integral:

\begin{align} a+\int_{4}^{x}\frac{f(t)}{t^2}dt&=2\sqrt{x}\tag{1}\\ {f(x)\over x^2}&=x^{-1/2}\\ f(x)&=x^{3/2}. \end{align}

To determine the value of the constant $a$, revisit the original equation $(1)$, now knowing that $f(t)=t^{3/2}$: \begin{align} a+\int_{4}^{x}\frac{t^{3/2}}{t^2}\,dt&=2\sqrt{x}\\ a+\int_{4}^{x}t^{-1/2}\,dt&=2\sqrt{x}\\ a+2t^{1/2}\Big|_{4}^{x}&=2\sqrt{x}\\ a+2\left(x^{1/2}-4^{1/2}\right)&=2\sqrt{x}\\ a&=4 \end{align}

An alternative to this last method is simply to evaluate $(1)$ at $x=4$ since this makes the integral term vanish: $$ a+\int_4^4 {f(t)\over t^2}\,dt=2\sqrt{4}\implies a+0=2\cdot 2\implies a=4. $$

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