INTERSECTION OF SURFACE

The intersection of surfaces in integral calculus involves finding common points or curves where
two surfaces meet in three-dimensional space. This concept is critical in applications such as computing
volume or surface areas, evaluating flux, or determining geometric properties of the regions bounded by
these surfaces.

Surface integrals are a natural generalization of line integrals: instead of integrating over a curve,
we integrate over a surface in 3-space. Such integrals are important in any of the subjects that deal with
continuous media (solids, fluids, gases), as well as subjects that deal with force fields, like
electromagnetic or gravitational fields. Though most of our work will be spent seeing how surface
integrals can be calculated and what they are used for, we first want to indicate briefly how they are
defined. The surface integral of the (continuous) function f(x, y, z) over the surface S is denoted by
❑
(1) ∬ f ( x + y + z ) dS
S

You can think of dS as the area of an infinitesimal piece of the surface S. To define the integral (1), we
subdivide the surface S into small pieces having area ∆ Si , pick a point (xi , yi, zi) in the i−th piece,
and form the Riemann sum.

(2) ∑ f (xi , yi, zi)∆ S i

As the subdivision of S gets finer and finer, the corresponding sums (2) approach a limit which does not
depend on the choice of the points or how the surface was subdivided. The surface integral (1) is defined
to be this limit. (The surface has to be smooth and not infinite in extent, and the subdivisions have to be
made reasonably, otherwise the limit may not exist, or it may not be unique.)

The most important type of surface integral is the one which calculates the flux of a vector field across
S. Earlier, we calculated the flux of a plane vector field F (x, y) across a directed curve in the xy-plane.
What we are doing now is the analog of this in space.

We assume that S is oriented: this means that S has two sides and one of them has been designated to
be the positive side. At each point of S there are two-unit normal vectors, pointing in opposite directions;
the positively directed unit normal vector, denoted by n, is the one standing with its base (i.e., tail) on the
positive side. If S is a closed surface, like a sphere or cube — that is, a surface with no boundaries, so
that it completely encloses a portion of 3-space — then by convention it is oriented so that the outer side
is the positive one, i.e., so that n always points towards the outside of S.

Let F(x, y, z) be a continuous vector field in space, and S an oriented surface. We define,
n
F
❑ ❑
(3) flux of F through S ¿ ∬ ( F ∙n ) dS=∬ F ∙ dS
S S
S
The two integrals are the same, but the second is written using the common and suggestive dS

abbreviation dS = n dS.

·
If F represents the velocity
· field for the flow of an incompressible fluid of density 1, then F ∙ n represents
the component of the velocity in the positive perpendicular direction to the surface, and F ∙ n dS
represents the flow rate across the little infinitesimal piece of surface having area dS. The integral in (3)
adds up these flows across the pieces of surface, so that we may interpret (3) as saying
 (4) flux of F through S = net flow rate across S,

where we count flow in the direction of n as positive, flow in the opposite direction as negative. More
generally, if the fluid has varying density, then the right side of (4) is the net mass transport rate of fluid
across S (per unit area, per time unit).

If F is a force field, then nothing is physically flowing, and one just uses the term “flux” to denote the
surface integral, as in (3).

Steps in Solving Problems Involving Intersection of Surface

1. Equating Surface Equations – the first step is to solve the equations of the two surfaces
simultaneously. This process defines the curve of intersection in terms of variables x, y, and z.
 Given two surfaces S1 :f ( x , y , z )=0 and S1 :g ( x , y , z )=0, find their intersection by
solving f ( x , y , z )=g ( x , y , z )
 This yields a parametric or implicit equation for the curve of intersection
2. Parameterize the Intersection – Once the intersection curve is defined, it is often parameterized
using a single variable to simplify integration.
 If possible, express the intersection curve in parametric form r⃗ (t )=[ x (t), y (t) , z (t ) ]
3. Set Up the Integral – use the parametric equations to calculate quantities like arc length, surface
area, or volume.
b
 Arc Length: L= ∫‖⃗r (t)‖ dt
a
 Surface Area: Use the projection of the curve onto the surfaces as needed

SAMPLE PROBLEMS

1. Determine the intersection points of parabolic hyperboloid z=3 x 2−2 y 2 with the lin e of
parametric equations x=3 t , y=2t , z=19 t , where t ∈ R

Solution:

a. Equations of the surfaces:

Parabolic hyperboloid: z=3 x 2−2 y 2

Line (parametric form): x=3 t , y=2t , z=19 t

The parameter t is a real number

b. Substitute the parametric equations of the line into the surface equation:

Substitute x=3 t∧ y=2 t into the parabolic hyperboloid equation

2 2
z=3 x −2 y
 2 2
z=3(3t ) −2(2 t)
2 2
z=27 t −8 t
2
z=19 t
c. Compare with the parametric equation for z:
2
19 t =19t
d. Solve for t:

19 t(t−1)=0

t=0∧t=1
e. Find the intersection points
For t=0 :
x=3(0)=0 , y=2(0)=0 , z =19(0)=0

Intersection point: (0,0,0)

For t=1:
x=3(1)=3 , y =2(1)=2 , z=19 (1)=19

Intersection point: (3,2,19)

2. The intersection between cylinder (x−1)2+ y 2=1 and sphere x 2+ y 2 + z 2=4 is called a Viviani
curve.
2.1. Solve the system consisting of the equations of the surfaces to find the equations of
the intersection curve

a. Cylinder: ( x−1)2+ y 2=1: Equation 1

Sphere: x 2+ y 2 + z 2=4 : Equation 2
Rearranged cylinder equation: x 2+ y 2−2 x=0 : Equation 3
b. Substitute Eq. 3 into the sphere equation
Substitute x 2+ y 2=2 x into x 2+ y 2 + z 2=4
2
2 x+ z =4
2
4−z
x= (Eq. 4)
2
2
z
x=2−
2
c. Substitute Eq. 4 into the cylinder equation

( ) ( )
2 2 2
4−z 2 4−z
+ y −2 =0
2 2
2 2
2 2 16−8 z + z
y =(4−z )−
4
 2 2 4
2 16−4 z −16+ 8 z + z
y=
4
2 4
2 4 z −z
y=
4

( )
2
2 2 4−z
y =z
4
2
z
y=±
2
√ 4−z 2
d. Solve for z
2 2 2
x + y + z =4
z ≤ 4 , so z ∈[−2 , 2]
2

e. Visualization of the intersection

3. Determine the surface area region formed by the intersection of the two cylinders
2 2 2 2
x + y =4∧x + z =4
SOLUTION:

To begin, let's create a sketch of the two cylinders.

The blue cylinder is the cylinder centered on the z-axis (i.e. x 2+ y 2=4 ¿ and the red cylinder is the
cylinder centered on the y-axis (i.e. x 2+ z2 =4 ¿ ).
The blue part of this sketch is the portion of x 2+ y 2=4 that is inside of x 2+ z2 =4 and the red part of this
sketch is the portion of x 2+ z2 =4 that is inside of x 2+ y 2=4 . Taken together we get the surface/region
we are interested in.

Now, when we did the volume of this region the sketches above were sufficient for our purposes. This
time let’s do one more set of sketches.

First, observe that due to symmetry, the red and yellow surfaces will have the same surface area, as they
represent the upper and lower portions of the same cylinder. Similarly, the blue and green surfaces will
also share the same surface area.

Additionally, since both cylinders that form this region have the same radius, the upper/lower and right/left
portions will also possess equal surface areas.

Therefore, we only need to compute the surface area of one of the four surfaces depicted above, and we
can obtain the total surface area by multiplying that value by four.

So, let’s get the surface area of the red portion of the sketch above. To do this we’ll need to solve
2 2
x + z =4 to get,
The “+” equation will give the red portion of the sketch, and the “-” equation will give the yellow portion of
the sketch.

So, let’s set up the integral that will give the surface area of the red portion. The integral is,

Now, we need to determine the region DD for our integral. If we looked at the surface from directly above
(i.e. down along the z-axis) we see the following figure.

Now, in general, seeing this region would (and probably should) suggest that we use polar coordinates to
do the integral. However, while using polar coordinates to do this integral wouldn’t be that difficult, (you
might want to do it for the practice) it actually turns out to be easier (in this case!) to use Cartesian
coordinates.

In terms of Cartesian coordinates let’s use the following limits for the red disk.

For the y limits we are just going from the lower portion of the circle to the upper portion of the circle.
Let’s now set up the integral.

Next, let’s evaluate the integral.

4. Find intersection of planes given by x + y + z+ 1=0 and x +2 y+ 3 z + 4=0.

Solution:
In three dimensions (which we are implicitly working with here), what is the intersection of two planes? As
long as the planes are not parallel, they should intersect in a line. So, our result should be a line.
How does one write an equation for a line in three dimensions? You should convince yourself that
a graph of a single equation cannot be a line in three dimensions. Instead, to describe a line, you need
to find a parametrization of the line. How can we obtain a parametrization for the line formed by the
intersection of these two planes?
We need an equation for all (x , y , z) that satisfy both,
x + y + z+ 1=0 and x +2 y+ 3 z + 4=0 x .
We start by attempting to solve this system of two equations. Since this is a system of two equations and
three unknowns, we know we can't solve it for a unique (x , y , z). But this is consistent with our above
conclusion that the intersection is a line, not a point. We want a whole bunch of (x , y , z) that satisfy the
two equations.
We could use either the method of “substitution” or the method of “elimination” to solve these equations.
We'll use the method of elimination. Since in both equations, x𝑥 has a coefficient of 1, we'll subtract the
two equations to eliminate x𝑥.
If we subtract
x + y + z+ 1=0 from x +2 y+ 3 z + 4=0,
we are left with
y +2 z+ 3=0
which we can rewrite as
y=−2 z−3 .
We don't have enough equations to uniquely solve for either y𝑦 or z𝑧. We'll simply set
z=t z =t ,
where t𝑡 can be any real number. The variable t𝑡 will be our free parameter for the parametrization of the
line.
Since we found that
y=2 z−3 y=2 z−3 ,
we can write it in terms of t t as
y=−2t−3
To find x𝑥 in terms of t𝑡, we plug these values of y𝑦 and z𝑧 into one of the original equations. We'll
use the first one so that
x=− y −z−1=2 t+ 3−t−1=t+2.
We can write our parametrization of the line as
(x , y , z)=(t +2 ,−2 t−3 , t).

SAMPLE PROBLEMS:
REFERENCES

Supplementary Notes Arthur Mattuck https://math.mit.edu/~jorloff/suppnotes/suppnotes02/v9.pdf

Colgate University. The Intersection of Two Surfaces. Retrieved from

[https://math.colgate.edu/math213/dlantz/examples/twosurf.html](https://math.colgate.edu/math213/
dlantz/examples/twosurf.html).

Princeton University. Multivariable Calculus: Quadric Surface Intersections. Retrieved from

[https://www.math.princeton.edu/](https://www.math.princeton.edu/).

Shah, M. B., & Rana, B. C. (2024). Engineering Drawing, 2nd Edition. Chapter 10: Intersection of
Surfaces. Retrieved from [https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/engineering-drawing-2nd/9789332503458/
xhtml/chapter010.xhtml](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/engineering-drawing-2nd/9789332503458/
xhtml/chapter010.xhtml).