I'm using area() to evaluate the area under 2 functions (defined using approxfun()) and the result is in contradiction with visual inspection (please see: http://sites.google.com/site/eospansite/dummy/problem_area.jpg ) The area under the red curve should be larger than the one under the black curve, but I'm geting the opposite result using area(). This is what I'm doing: require(MASS) f1 <- approxfun(x,y1) f2 <- approxfun(x,y2) plot(x,y1,ylim=range(c(y1,y2))) lines(x,f1(x),col="black") points(x,y2) lines(x,f2(x),col="red") area1 <- area(f1,min(x),max(x)) area2 <- area(f2,min(x),max(x)) text(4.5,1.6,paste("f2:",round(area2,3)),col="red") text(5.5,0.1,paste("f1:",round(area1,3)),col="black") title(main="Areas under curves") grid(50,50) What am I doing wrong? Could this be a problem with an inappropriate use of approxfun() ? Data can be found here: http://sites.google.com/site/eospansite/dummy/areaproblem.rda Thanks Agus -- Dr. Agustin Lobo Institut de Ciencies de la Terra "Jaume Almera" (CSIC) Lluis Sole Sabaris s/n 08028 Barcelona Spain Tel. 34 934095410 Fax. 34 934110012 e-mail Agustin.Lobo at ija.csic.es http://www.ija.csic.es/gt/obster