Interval additivity is another integral property, crucial for evaluating definite integrals over separated intervals. It states that if you have a continuous function \( f(x) \) on an interval \([a, c] \), you can split the integral at any intermediate point \( b \) between \( a \) and \( c \):
- \( \int_{a}^{c} f(x) \, dx = \int_{a}^{b} f(x) \, dx + \int_{b}^{c} f(x) \, dx \)
This property is incredibly useful when you know the values of integrals over sub-intervals, and need to find the integral over a larger interval.
For instance, in our exercise, we are given \( \int_{0}^{1} f(x) \, dx = 2 \) and \( \int_{1}^{2} f(x) \, dx = 3 \). By applying interval additivity, we find the integral over the whole interval \([0, 2]\):
\( \int_{0}^{2} f(x) \, dx = \int_{0}^{1} f(x) \, dx + \int_{1}^{2} f(x) \, dx = 2 + 3 = 5 \).
This simplifies the problem significantly, allowing us to calculate \( \int_{0}^{2} [2f(x) + g(x)] \, dx \) efficiently.