Read the differential order literally: take quadrature nodes in and in . Applying Simpson's rule first in and then in multiplies the one-dimensional quadrature weights. With , this tensor-product quadrature is
Equivalently, the nine sampled function values have the quadrature weight array
with rows indexed by the quadrature nodes and columns by the quadrature nodes. The quadrature weights sum to the rectangle's area. If the intended coordinate assignment is instead , , exchange and in the formula. Both conventions give the same calculation on the unit square used below.
For the separable integrand, tensor-product quadrature factors into two one-dimensional applications of Simpson's rule:
so
The exact double integral, evaluated by Fubini's theorem and the power rule for integration, is
The factor is always integrated exactly. All quadrature error therefore comes from applying Simpson's rule to the factor.
At ,
The factor is now a cubic polynomial. Simpson's rule still integrates it exactly because its degree of precision of a quadrature rule is three. Exactness of tensor-product quadrature depends on the polynomial degree in each variable, rather than their sum.
At , the preceding tensor-product quadrature gives
Both factors of the separable integrand are quadratic polynomials, so exactness follows directly from the construction of Simpson's rule.
Use tensor-product quadrature with composite Simpson's rule in each coordinate. If there are subintervals in each direction, then and the quadrature rule error is : apply the one-dimensional error bound for composite Simpson's rule successively, using bounded fourth partial derivatives. Hence the error is in big O notation. The rectangular domain makes the product grid convenient.
For a generic integrand in 20 dimensions, Monte Carlo integration gives root mean square error , whereas tensor-product quadrature with composite Simpson's rule gives only . One can sample uniformly in the Euclidean unit ball, for example by an independent uniform direction and radius with uniform on .
For this particular integrand, the most efficient elementary choice uses radial integration over a ball first. The area of the unit 19-sphere is , as follows from the volume of an n-ball. Hence
The reduced integrand is smooth. Apply composite Simpson's rule to obtain deterministic error in big O notation, with one original radial integrand evaluation per node. If the selection is restricted to direct multidimensional methods, Monte Carlo integration with root mean square error is the appropriate choice.