How can this function have two different antiderivatives?
I'm currently operating with the following integral:
$$\int\frac{u'(t)}{(1-u(t))^2} dt$$
But I notice that
$$\frac{d}{dt} \frac{u(t)}{1-u(t)} = \frac{u'(t)}{(1-u(t))^2}$$
and
$$\frac{d}{dt} \frac{1}{1-u(t)} = \frac{u'(t)}{(1-u(t))^2}$$
It seems that both solutions are possible, but that seems to contradict the uniqueness of Riemann's Integral.
So the questions are:
- Which one of them is the correct integral?
- If both are correct, why the solution is not unique?
- The pole at $u(t)=1$ has something to say?
Solution 1:
It is not really a contradiction, since difference of the two functions is constant: $$ \frac1{1-u(t)} - \frac{u(t)}{1-u(t)} = \frac{1-u(t)}{1-u(t)}=1. $$ (Derivative of a constant function is zero. Primitive function is determined uniquely up to a constant.)
Solution 2:
I have not verified that the derivatives are correct, but notice that $$\frac1{1-u(t)}-\frac{u(t)}{1-u(t)}=1$$
that is, the difference between both antiderivatives is constant. This implies that the derivatives of both functions are the same.
Solution 3:
$$\frac{d}{dt} \frac{u(t)}{1-u(t)}=\frac{d}{dt} \left(\frac{1}{1-u(t)}-1\right)=\frac{d}{dt} \frac{1}{1-u(t)}$$
Note that $1$ is just a constant so it vanishes. But when computing the antiderivative you will specify the constant according to initial conditions.