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Area between curves

Problem 5.98 · medium

Find the area of the region bounded by \( \displaystyle y = - 3 x^{2} + 17 x - 26 \) and \( \displaystyle y = - x - 2 \).

\[ \left(12 - 3 x\right) \left(x - 2\right) = - 3 x^{2} + 18 x - 24 \]
Set the curves equal: top − bottom, factored.✓ Proved
They cross at x = 2 and x = 4; between them y = -3*x**2 + 17*x - 26 is on top.
\[ \int\limits_{2}^{4} \left(- 3 x^{2} + 18 x - 24\right)\, dx = 4 \]
Area = ∫ (top − bottom) dx.✓ Proved

Answer \( 4 \)

Lines: 2 proved, 1 not checked. The answer was also checked a second way, without looking at the solution. The reviewers disagree about how one step is explained; every verdict is in the receipt.

The full receipt

Line	Status	Checked by	Detail
1	✓ Proved	sympy 1.14.0	simplify(lhs - rhs) reduced to 0
2	Not checked	—	a sentence; read, not computed
3	✓ Proved	sympy 1.14.0	simplify(lhs - rhs) reduced to 0
answer, a second way	✓ Checked independently	sympy 1.14.0 + mpmath 1.3.0	numerical quadrature of \|top − bottom\| gives the same area

Reviewers

gpt-oss:20b: pass
qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) — The intersection points are incorrect; solving -3x^2 + 17x - 26 = -x - 2 yields x = 1 and x = 8, not 2 and 4. Consequently, the integrand and bounds are wrong.

Every verdict on record (4)

qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-09-26 — The intersection points are incorrect; solving -3x^2 + 17x - 26 = -x - 2 yields x = 1 and x = 8, not 2 and 4. Consequently, the integrand and bounds are wrong.
gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-09-26
qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-09-26 — The setup in line 1 is incorrect: the difference (top - bottom) is -3x^2 + 18x - 24, but the roots of this difference are x=2 and x=4, whereas the actual intersection points of the original curves y = -3x^2 + 17x - 26 and y = -x - 2 are x=1 and x=8. The solution uses the wrong bounds and wrong integrand, leading to an incorrect area.
gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-09-26

Proved: SymPy reduced the difference between the two sides to zero. Checked independently: a separate method, named above, confirmed it. Checked numerically: the two sides agree at every sampled point, which is evidence, not proof. Reviewed: a model or a person read it; that is all a sentence can have. Solution by generator:structured/area_between_curves, checked 2026-09-26 with SymPy 1.14.0.