This document discusses numerical integration techniques, including:
- The need to approximate definite integrals numerically when exact solutions cannot be found.
- The trapezoidal rule, which approximates the area under a curve as a trapezoid, and generalizes this to multiple trapezoids to improve accuracy.
- Simpson's rule, which uses a parabolic interpolation between three points to better approximate curved areas.
- Examples are provided to demonstrate applying these rules to calculate integrals of simple functions.