Please remind me to return midterms, etc.

Section 7.4: Arc length

Consider a particle moving in the plane whose position at time t is (p(t), q(t)), for t between a and b, where p and q are both differentiable functions.

How far does the particle travel?

The infinitesimal contribution to the length from time t to time t+dt [draw picture] is the hypotenuse of a triangle whose (infinitesimal) horizontal leg is dx = p(t+dt) p(t) = p (t) dt, whose (infinitesimal) vertical leg is dy = q(t+dt) q(t) = q (t) dt, and whose (infinitesimal) hypotenuse is therefore sqrt((dx)2+(dy)2) = sqrt([p (t) dt]2+[q (t) dt]2) = sqrt([p (t)]2+[q (t)]2) dt so the total length is

(*)

L=

sqrt([p (t)]2+[q (t)]2) dt

Example: p(t) = cos t, q(t) = sin t, with 0 t /2. The path travelled by the particle is the quarter-circular arc of radius 1 centered at (0,0) (in the first quadrant). Length = = =
0 0 0

/2

sqrt((sin t)2 + (cos t)2) dt sqrt(sin2 t + cos2 t) dt 1 dt

/2 /2

= /2. Special case: p(t) = t and q(t) = f(t), so the path of the particle whose position (x,y) at time t is (p(t),q(t)) is just the graph of the curve y = f(x). Then p (t) = 1 and q (t) = f (t), so our formula (**) says that the length is

ab sqrt([1]2+[f (t)]2) dt = ab sqrt([1]2+[f (x)]2) dx ,

which is Stewarts formula (3) for the length of a curve .

Another special case: p(t) = g(t) and q(t) = t, so the path of the particle whose position (x, y) at time t is (p(t), q(t)) is

just the graph of the curve x = g(y). Then p (t) = g (t) and q (t) = 1, so our formula (**) says that the length is

ab sqrt([g (t)]2+[1]2) dt = ab sqrt([g (y)]2+[1]2) dy ,

which is Stewarts formula (4).

Suppose f(t) is defined for all t in some closed interval I, so that the points (t, f(t)) (for t in I) trace out a parametrized curve. Suppose that a belongs to I. Define (**) s(x) =
a x

sqrt([f (t)]2+1) dt

(the arc-length function) for all x belonging to I; Note that s(x) is negative when x < a (since the integrand is positive; this is one of those backward integrals where the upper limit of integration is less than the lower limit of integration!). Then:

The length of the curve from t=t1 to t=t2

(with t1 t2) is equal to s(t1) s(t2). This is easy to see in the case where a t1 t2, but its also not hard to prove in the other cases as well. For instance, if t1 < a < t2, then s(t2) equals the arc-length from t=a to t=t2, while s(t1) equals the negative of the arclength from t=a to t=t1, so that subtracting the latter from the former gives the sum of the arc-length from t=a to t=t2 and the arc-length from t=a to t=t1.