I have been reading Richard Feynman's lectures and came across an interesting proof regarding the Earth's gravitational force. At one point in the proof, Feynman uses the following the integral:

$\int_{R+a}^{R-a} dr$
(13.18 on http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_13.html)

In this integral, *r* is the distance between a point in space and the surface of the Earth, *R* is the distance between that point and the center of the Earth, and *a* is the radius of the Earth. I interpret this integral as summing up all of the dr's going around the Earth. The proof itself makes sense to me, I am just confused about the bounds of integration.

As $\int_{R+a}^{R-a} dr$, I interpret the integral as summing up the *dr*'s starting on the right side of the Earth and going to the left side. However, in this sense, $\int_{R-a}^{R+a} dr$ should be the sum of all the *dr*'s starting from the left side and going to the right side. Conceptually, I feel as if these should be the same, but mathematically $\int_{R+a}^{R-a} dr = -\int_{R-a}^{R+a} dr$. My question is, how did Feynman choose the ordering of his bounds of integration? It does not appear arbitrary, but I am not sure how the decision was made. Thank you!