Riemann integration via primitives for a new proof to the change of variable theorem

Abstract

We approach the Riemann integral via generalized primitives to give a new proof for a general result on change of variable originally proven by Kestelman and Davies. Our proof is similar to Kestelman's, but we hope readers will find it clearer thanks to the use of a new test for the Riemann integrability (which we introduce in this paper) along with some ingredients from some other more recent proofs available in the literature. We also include a bibliographical review of related results and proofs. Although this paper emphasizes in the change of variable theorem, our contributions to the Riemann integration theory are of independent interest. For instance, we present a very simple proof to the fact that continuous functions are integrable which avoids the use of uniform continuity.