Auberle 1

Solids of Revolution

Integration is an integral part of higher mathematics, calculus specifically. It can be used

to find the area of any two or three-dimensional object, no matter the shape or size. Integration is
useful in areas of construction such as three-dimensional printing and computer aided design. It
is a tool most mathematicians and engineers use often, and it is therefore very important to know
how to use.
b

The integral of a function, f(x), is shown as

f ( x ) dx
a

, where indicates the sum

of the function from a to b, and dx indicates the change in the x-value of the function. The way
this works is that from a to b on the function, there are an infinite number of infinitely small
vertical slices along the x-axis, represented by dx in the function. By summing all of these
infinitely small slices, you receive the area created by these slices, or the area under the curve.

dx

This method is also used to find the area between two curves. Given two functions, one
can determine the area between them by using a modified version of the expression given above,

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b

(f ( x )g ( x ))dx
a

, where f(x) is the function farther from the x-axis and g(x) the function

closer. By subtracting the area of the function closer to the x-axis, the area not between the two
functions is detracted from the area as a whole, so the only region left is that between the two
curves.
For example, one might use this method to find the area between the functions y=

x
and y= 3 .

The figure above shows the intersection between the two functions, where the function

y=

x is represented by the green curve and y= 3 the black line. Since the two functions

intersect at x=0 and x=9, those will serve as the boundaries for the integral.

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The figure above shows the area under the y=

x
the y= 3

x function in green and the area under

function in blue. As shown, if the area in blue is subtracted from the area in green,

all that is left is the area between the two functions. It then follows that, if the integral of the

x
function y= 3

is subtracted from the integral of the function y=

x , then the answer will

become the integral of the area between the two functions. Therefore, the integral to find the area

between the functions y=

x
and y= 3

would be written as

( x )( x3 ) dx .
0

After

calculating, the answer is 4.5 units2.

This method can be taken further, using the area between curves to calculate solid, threedimensional objects. There are multiple ways of doing this, and each mathematical situation is
better suited to one method over the other. The first method is called the disk method. This
process builds off integrals in a way that uses the area under the curve and rotates that area
around a line. The disk method rotates the area by creating infinitely thin disks about the line,

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hence the name. Since the disks have a negligible thickness, the only area that is taken into
account is the two dimensional area of each disk such that the rotated area becomes the integral
of a circle, r2, where r is the radius.

When rotating around the x-axis, the radius of each disk rotated is the distance between
the x-axis and the function at a point, represented by f(x). Since f(x) is equal to the value of the
function itself, the area of the disk would then be x2, where x is representative of the function.
In order to account for each individual disk, the area is then multiplied by dx, the slices described
in the integral above, since each disk would be extruded from the infinitely small slices that
make up the area. So, in short, the area of a function f(x)=x rotated around the x-axis would be

calculated by the integral

(f ( x))2
a

, where a and b are the boundaries of the function.

The next method, the ring method, is calculated similarly, except this time accounting for
multiple functions. As explained above for the area between two functions, the ring method is
similar in that it converts that concept to three-dimensional objects. The same set-up of the disk

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method is used, but this time instead of one radius there are two. The larger radius subtracts the
smaller radius to create a ring being rotated with a hole in the middle instead of a disk.

The calculation for the ring method is, essentially, a combination of the method for
finding the area between two curves and the disk method of rotation, resulting in an integral of

( f ( x ) )2( g ( x ) )2
a

where a and b are the boundaries of the object being rotated, f(x) is the

function with the larger radius, and g(x) is the function with the smaller radius.
The final method is called the shell method. This method, instead of creating disks to
rotate around the axis, uses cylindrical shells. In this case, f(x) would represent the height of the
cylinder, and dx the distance between the inner and outer radii of the shell. Therefore, since the
area of a cylinder is 2hr where r is the radius and h is the height, the equation to find the area of

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b

an object using the shell method would be

2 f ( x ) dx
a

, since the height is the output of the

function and the radius is created by the slices of the integral.

Moving forward, we could use one of these methods to revolve the previous area,

( x )( x3 ) dx ,

and rotate it around a line, y=-2. The best method for this axis of rotation

would be the ring method, since the shell method works best when rotating around the vertical
lines. If the area was being rotated around the x-axis, the equation would be

( x ) ( x3 )
0

dx , but since the axis of rotation is instead y=-2, the extra 2 units must be

accounted for. The area in question is on the opposite side of the x-axis from the line of rotation,

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so 2 units must be added to the integral to account for the difference, so the equation instead

would be

( x ) ( x3 ) +2
0

dx , which equals

63
, or approximately 98.96 un3.
2

The final method of integrating solids is the cross-section method. This method works by
extruding two-dimensional shapes outwards from the area in question, where one side of the
shape is equal to one slice of the area. This method can be used with shapes such as squares or
triangles by using the side represented by the slice in a ratio with the other sides in order to find
the area of the shape. By adding the area of all the shapes together, the area of the full threedimensional object is produced. For example, if isosceles right triangles were extruded from the
area above, where one leg is equal to the length of one slice, the area would then be calculated by
taking the area of a triangle and substituting the length of the legs for the distance between the
functions.

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x
In this case, the distance between the functions is ( x ) 3

()

. Since the shape being

extruded is an isosceles right triangle, the length of both the legs are the same, so the length of

x
each leg would be ( x ) 3

()

. Since the area of a triangle is calculated as 1/2 bh, where b is

the base of the triangle and h is the height, the area of the triangle can be calculated as leg*leg,
or leg2. Substituting the leg length for the distance between the two functions, the calculation

would be

( ))

1
x
( x )
2
3

. This calculation, however, only accounts for one triangle, so in

order to receive the sum of all the triangles, the expression would have to be converted into an

integral as such,

((

( )) ) dx .

1 ( ) x
x
2
3

After integration, the area of the object is

27
20 , or

approximately 1.35 un3.

Integrals are an important part of mathematics and engineering, and is therefore
important to understand and be able to use.