Help with a trig-substitution integral I'm in the chapter of trigonometric substitution for integrating different functions. I'm having a bit of trouble even starting this homework question:
$$\int \frac{(x^2+3x+4)\,dx} {\sqrt{x^2-4x}}$$

In order to make a proper substitution in integral calculus, the function that you are substituting must have a unique inverse function. However, there is such a case where the the derivative is present and you can make what I refer to as a "virtual substitution". This is not exactly the case here, we have to do other algebraic manipulations. Trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine and their variants have infinitely many inverse functions; inverse trigonometric functions ( i.e. arcsine, arccosine, etc...) have a unique inverse function, thus are fine. For example, if I made the substitution $y = \sin x$ ( where $-1≤y≤1$) , then $ x = (-1)^n \cdot \arcsin y + n\pi$ ($n \in \mathbb  Z$): this does not work, without bound. If anyone disagrees with my statement, please prove that the substitution is proper. Also, in my opinion, turning a rational/algebraic function into a transcendental function is ridiculous. There are very elementary ways to approach this integral; a good book to read on many of these methods is Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson. 
