TITLE: The rate at which the value of a definite integral increases
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Say I had a function $f(x) = x^2$ ,how could I find the rate at which $$\int_{0}^{a}{x^2dx}$$ increases for $a$, or more generally for any function.
Also, is this equivalent to $\frac{d}{da}f(x)$?

REPLY [8 votes]: Use the fact that 
$$\int_{0}^{a}{x^2dx}=\frac{1}{3}a^3$$
More generally, 
$$\frac{d}{dt}\int_{a(t)}^{b(t)}{f(x)dx}=\frac{d}{dt}(F(b(t))-F(a(t)))=b'(t)f(b(t))-a'(t)f(a(t))$$
where $F(t)$ is the anti-derivative of $F$, i.e. $F'=f$. Note that you don't need to know $F$ to calculate the derivative of an integral with varying bounds with respect to the variable $t$.