Volumes of Revolution

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Applications of Integration 3 – Volumes of Rotation

In our last post we discussed volumes of figures with regular cross sections. Many common figures can be analyzed as some region rotated around a line, possibly one of its edges. For example, the region between the x-axis and the segment with equation y=\frac{r}{h}x from x = 0 to
x = h when rotated around the x-axis generates a cone with height h and a base with a radius of r. This has regular cross-sections which are circles for any value of x between 0 and h. Their areas are. So based on the idea in my previous post the volume is the integral of the cross-section area times the thickness:

\displaystyle \underset{n\to \infty }{\mathop{\lim }}\,\sum\limits_{i=1}^{n}{\pi {{\left( \tfrac{r}{h}{{x}_{i}} \right)}^{2}}\Delta {{x}_{i}}}=\int_{0}^{h}{\pi {{\left( \tfrac{r}{h}x \right)}^{2}}}dx=\tfrac{1}{3}\pi {{r}^{2}}h

Since circular cross-sections are very common (at least in calculus books) this is often treated as a separate topic with its own ideas and formulas. It really is not. It’s the basic idea applied to figures with circular sections; the cross-section area as a function of x is \pi {{\left( r(x) \right)}^{2}}; the thickness is \Delta x

\displaystyle V=\int_{a}^{b}{\pi {{\left( r\left( x \right) \right)}^{2}}dx}.

If the figure has a hole through it one subtracts the inside volume (radius = r\left( x \right) ) from the outside volume (radius = R\left( x \right)). This may be done with two integrals or combined into one.

\displaystyle \int_{a}^{b}{\pi {{\left( R\left( x \right) \right)}^{2}}dx}-\int_{a}^{b}{\pi {{\left( r\left( x \right) \right)}^{2}}}dx=\int_{a}^{b}{\pi {{\left( R\left( x \right) \right)}^{2}}-\pi {{\left( r\left( x \right) \right)}^{2}}dx}

Looking at the last integral we see that this is the same as treating the cross-section as an annulus (aka a “washer”). The \pi is often factored out in front of the integral sign to make things look neater; I suggest you leave it where it is to remind students that they are subtracting the areas of two circles.

To help students see what the figures look like you can do several things. You can cut the region out of light cardboard and tape it to the end of a pencil. Then rotate the pencil quickly to see the volume. Another way is to use a good graphing program, such as Winplot, which will let you see a three-dimensional figure being formed. One of my favorites is to use paper wedding bells that start flat and then open into a three-dimensional figure.

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