ABSTRACT
When an integral contains a power of n, then it may sometimes be rewritten, using integration by parts, in terms of a similar integral containing (n − 1) or (n − 2), and so on. The result is a recurrence relation, i.e. an equation that recursively defines a sequence, once one or more initial terms are given; each further term of the sequence is defined as a function of the preceding terms. It may sound difficult but it’s actually quite straightforward and is just one more technique for integrating certain functions.
