In (19.14.1)–(19.14.3) both the integrand and
are assumed to be nonnegative. Cases in which
can be included by application of (19.2.10).
In (19.14.4)
, each quadratic polynomial is positive
on the interval
, and
is a permutation of
(not all 0 by assumption) such that
. More generally in (19.14.4),
where
If
, then
If
, then
If
, then
(These four cases include 12 integrals in Abramowitz and Stegun (1964, p. 596).)
Legendre (1825–1832) showed that every elliptic integral can be expressed
in terms of the three integrals in (19.1.2) supplemented by
algebraic, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions. The classical method of
reducing (19.2.3) to Legendre’s integrals is described in many
places, especially Erdélyi et al. (1953b, §13.5),
Abramowitz and Stegun (1964, Chapter 17), and Labahn and Mutrie (1997, §3). The
last reference gives a clear summary of the various steps involving linear
fractional transformations, partial-fraction decomposition, and recurrence
relations. It then improves the classical method by first applying Hermite
reduction to (19.2.3) to arrive at integrands without multiple
poles and uses implicit full partial-fraction decomposition and implicit root
finding to minimize computing with algebraic extensions. The choice among 21
transformations for final reduction to Legendre’s normal form depends on
inequalities involving the limits of integration and the zeros of the cubic or
quartic polynomial. A similar remark applies to the transformations given in
Erdélyi et al. (1953b, §13.5) and to the choice among explicit reductions
in the extensive table of Byrd and Friedman (1971), in which one limit of
integration is assumed to be a branch point of the integrand at which the
integral converges. If no such branch point is accessible from the interval of
integration (for example, if the integrand is
and the
interval is [1,2]), then no method using this assumption succeeds.