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Volume by Cylindrical Shells

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32 views3 pages

Volume by Cylindrical Shells

Uploaded by

Melek sare
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Math 113 Lecture #5

§6.3: Volume by Cylindrical Shells


Definition of a Cylindrical Shell. Sometimes the method of disks (washers) is
difficult to apply when computing the volume of a solid of revolution.
For instance, for the solid obtained by revolving the region

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
x

about the y-axis, the outer and inner radii needed require inverting the function on
intervals where the function is monotone.
Instead, we consider the approximating rectangles in a Riemann sum for the area under
the graph, and rotate these rectangles around the y-axis, which results in a cylindrical
shell.

What is the volume of one of these cylindrical shells?


Say the outer cylindrical shell has radius r2 and the inner has radius r1 .
Since the volume of a solid cylinder is π(radius)2 × height, the volume of the cylindrical
shell is

V = πr22 h − πr12 h
= π(r22 − r12 )h
= π(r2 + r1 )(r2 − r1 )h
r2 + r1
= 2π h(r2 − r1 )
2
Let ∆r = r2 − r1 , the thickness of the cylindrical shell, and let r = (r2 + r1 )/2, the
average of the outer and inner radii of the cylindrical shell.
The volume of the cylindrical shell is then

V = 2πrh∆r.

Here the factor 2πr is the average circumference of the cylindrical shell, the factor h is
its height, and the factor ∆r is its the thickness.

Computing Volumes of Solids of Revolution by Cylindrical Shells. The


volume of the ith cylindrical shell in the approximation is

Vi ≈ 2πx̄i f (x̄i )∆x.

The sum of the volumes of the n cylindrical shells that approximate the solid is
n
X n
X
V = Vi ≈ 2πx̄i f (x̄i )∆x.
i=1 i=1

Having assumed that f is continuous on [a, b], we see that this Riemann sum has a limit
as n → ∞, and so a definite integral gives the volume of S:
Z b
V = 2πxf (x) dx.
a

Example 1. Let R be the region in the xy-plane enclosed by y = 3 + 2x − x2 , y = 0,


and x = 0.
Here are the graphs of these curves, and the region R they enclose.

y2

0
0 1 2 3
x

Let S be the solid obtained by revolving the region R about the y-axis.
Can you visualize the cylindrical shells used to compute the volume?
[Sketch a cylindrical shell for this solid of revolution.]
Since the height is f (x) = 3 + 2x − x2 over the interval [0, 3], the volume of the solid by
the method of cylindrical shells is
Z 3
V = 2πxf (x) dx
0
Z 3
= 2π x(3 + 2x − x2 ) dx
Z0 3
3x + 2x2 − x3 dx

= 2π
0
 2 3
3x 2x3 x4
= 2π + −
2 3 4
  0
27 54 81
= 2π + −
2 3 4
45π
= .
2
Example 2. Find the volume of the solid S obtained by revolving around the y-axis the
region enclosed by y = 3 + 2x − x2 and x + y = 3.

y 2

0
0 1 2 3
x

The height of a cylindrical shell for this solid is the difference of the top curve and the
bottom curve.
Can you sketch a typical shell for this solid? The volume is
Z 3

V = 2πx f (x) − g(x) dx
0
Z 3
x 3 + 2x − x2 − (3 − x) dx

= 2π
Z0 3
x 3x − x2 dx

= 2π
Z0 3
= 2π (3x2 − x3 ) dx.
0

The calculation is left for you to finish. [The answer is 27π/2, if you wanted to know.]

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