Integration by reduction formulae

In integral calculus, integration by reduction formulae is a method relying on recurrence relations. It is used when an expression containing an integer parameter, usually in the form of powers of elementary functions, or products of transcendental functions and polynomials of arbitrary degree, can't be integrated directly. But using other methods of integration a reduction formula can be set up to obtain the integral of the same or similar expression with a lower integer parameter, progressively simplifying the integral until it can be evaluated. This method of integration is one of the earliest used.

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