In mathematics, an integral is the area under the curve. In your example, you want the area under the curve as defined by position and rate.
position <- c(2,34,58)
rate <- c(14, 20, 5)
plot(position, rate, type="l", ylim=c(0, 25))
You can calculate the area under the curve by hand, using the trapezoidal rule:
32*17 + 24*12.5 = 844
Or, to do it programmatically:
AUC <- function(x, y){
sum(diff(x)*rollmean(y,2))
}
AUC(position, rate)
[1] 844
2
solved how to calculate integral with R