Integration is an important concept in mathematics and, together with its inverse, differentiation, is one of the two main operations in calculus. Given a function f of a real variable x and an interval [a, b] of the real line, the definite integral
is defined informally to be the signed area of the region in the xy-plane bounded by the graph of f, the x-axis, and the vertical lines x = a and x = b, such that area above the x-axis adds to the total, and that below the x-axis subtracts from the total.