Dear R gurus,

To start, let me confess to not being an experienced programmer, although I have used R fairly
extensively in my work as a 
graduate student in statistics.

I wish to find the root of a function of two variables that is defined by an integral which must be 
evaluated numerically.

So the problem I want to solve is of the form:  Find k such that f(k)=0, where f(y) = int_a^b
g(x,y) dx.  Again, the integral
involved must be done numerically.

I'm told by a friend who knows programming, but not R, that what I need to do is create something
like a "local environment"
within which I could create a placeholder for x.  So I want to make something like the following work.

f(var) <- function(var) {

cons <- var

g <- function(x,cons) {h(x,cons)}

ret <- function(cons) integrate(g(x,cons),a,b)$value
ret
}

I could then use (e.g.) a Newton Raphson algorithm to find the root of the function"f".

Thanks,

Chris Rhoads
Northwestern University

