The trapezoidal rule approximates an integral by replacing the curve over an interval with a straight line between two sampled points and computing the area of the resulting trapezoid. In composite form, the endpoint values are each weighted by one half because interior points belong to two neighboring trapezoids, while endpoints belong to only one.
Conditions: Applied to numerical integration over an interval [a,b].; Uses function values at the interval endpoints.; For composite use, adjacent subinterval endpoints are shared, producing half weights at the outer endpoints.
The trapezoidal rule approximates an integral by replacing the curve over an interval with a straight line between two sampled points and computing the area of the resulting trapezoid. In composite form, the endpoint values are each weighted by one half because interior points belong to two neighboring trapezoids, while endpoints belong to only one.
Conditions: Applied to numerical integration over an interval [a,b].; Uses function values at the interval endpoints.; For composite use, adjacent subinterval endpoints are shared, producing half weights at the outer endpoints.