Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / Paper 1 / 20 / a / Solution

Let $a=\pi /3$, $b=2\pi /3$ and take $n$ equal subintervals of width $h=(b-a)/n=\pi /(3n)$. Since sine is continuous, its integral is the limit of the left-endpoint Riemann sumsUsing Euler's formula, the corresponding complex sum is a finite geometric series:Since $(e^{ih}-1)/h\to i$,Taking imaginary parts givesOne can see the same limit entirely within the real sums: the finite trigonometric-sum identity obtained from this geometric sum givesThus the evaluation is explicitly by a Riemann sum, as required.