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Cavalieris Principle
At any given height, the horizontal length of this gure is l cm:

In problems 15, you will see how to calculate the gures area. 1. First, use ten congruent rectangles (same height and length) to approximate the gure.

(a) What is the (b) What is the (c) What is the (d) What is the 2.

length of each rectangle? height of each rectangle? area of each rectangle? area of the ten rectangles?

Suppose you used 100 congruent rectangles. (a) What is the area of each rectangle in that case? (b) What is the total area of all the rectangles in that case? If you use n rectangles, what is the total area of all the rectangles? As n gets larger, do the rectangles approximate the gure better, worse, or the same? What is the area of the gure? Explain. What is the area of a single rectangle with the same height and length as the gure?
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3. 4. 5. 6.

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

Cavalieris Principle: Problem

7.

Of course, these two triangles have the same area. Use the idea given in problems 15 (rather than the formula for the area of a triangle) to prove it.

First, estimate each triangles area using 10 rectangles. i. What are the lengths of the top rectangles for each triangle? (Call them rectangle 1 for each triangle.) ii. What are the lengths of the next rectangles (rectangle 2 for each)? iii. What are the lengths of rectangle i for each triangle? iv. Find the area of rectangle i for each triangle. v. Now nd the total area of all the rectangles for each triangle. (b) If there are n (with n greater than 10) rectangles for each triangle, would the rectangles approximate each triangle better than, worse than, or the same as the 10 rectangles did? What would their total areas be? (c) Imagine making n get larger and larger. How does this change how well the rectangles approximate the triangle? What happens to the areas? Suppose you have two gures of whatever shape that are the same height. Cavalieris Principle for two-dimensional gures says that if the lengths of one-dimensional slicesjust a line segmentof the two gures are the same, then the gures have the same area. You might think of this as making all the slices to one gure and then just pushing them to the side to form the other gure. 8. Now compare the volumes of these prisms:

(a)

Note: The sum of the rst n integers, 1 + 2 + + n, is 1 n(n + 1). 2

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

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Cavalieris Principle: Problem

The cross sections of the prisms are rectangles with dimensions l and w, and each prism has a height of h. (a) What is the volume of the right prism? (b) Approximate the oblique prism using 10 smaller, congruent right prisms, in the same way you approximated the triangle using rectangles:

You can imagine slicing the right prism, and then shifting the slices to look like the oblique prism.

What is the total volume of the 10 prisms? Now use n right prisms to approximate the prism, and nd the total volume of the prisms. (d) What is the volume of the oblique prism? Explain. (c) 9. Now do the same with cylinders. All cross sections of each are congruent circles.

Show that the volume of the oblique cylinder is the same as the right cylinder. 10. A cone is an object whose cross sections are circles that are not congruent. However, they are similar. Show that these cones have the same volume using the same method (approximating the volumes using right cylinders).
In fact, all circles are similar. Hint: Youll need to show that the centers of the cross sections are collinear, or that the radius of the cross sections of the two cones at a given height are equal.

11.

State a version of Cavalieris Principle for three-dimensional objects. (Hint: You can use the wording for two-dimensional objects on page 2, if you change a few important words.)
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Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

Cavalieris Principle: Hints

Hints
Hint to problem 7. To nd the length of a rectangle approximating the right triangle, compare the triangle formed by the bottom of the rectangle and the top vertex of the triangle.

For the obtuse triangle, youll have to consider four right triangles. Two have height h. The other two are the bold right triangles shown above. Hint to problem 10. To nd the radius of a cylinder, consider that the cross section of a conethrough the vertexis a triangle. Suppose you cut the top of the cone o, right where the bottom of the cylinder would be. How does its cross section compare to the cross section of the whole cone?

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

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Cavalieris Principle: Answers

Answers
1. (a) l h (b) 10 lh (c) 10 (d) lh
lh 2. (a) 100 (b) lh

3. 4. 5.

lh The rectangles approximate the gure better. The area is lh. Explanations may vary, for example: As you use more rectangles, they approximate the gure better, but no matter how many rectangles you use, their total area is always lh. So the area of the gure is lh. lh
b 2b bi bhi i. 10 for each; ii. 10 for each; iii. 10 for each; iv. 100 for each; v. 0.55bh n+1) (b) better; the total area for each would be bh n(2 , or n2 1 1 bh( 2 + 2n ). (c) As n goes to innity, the rectangles will approximate the triangles better and better. The areas always stay the same. (In fact, they get closer and closer to 1 bh 2 for each.)

6.

7. (a)

8. (a) (b) (c) (d)

lwh lwh lwh lwh; As you use more and more prisms to approximate the oblique one, the approximate gets better and better. But no matter how many right prisms you use to approximate the oblique prism, their total volume is always lwh.

9. 10. 11.

See the solutions. See the solutions. For two objects of whatever shape that are the same height, if the areas of two-dimensional slices of the objects are the same, then the objects have the same volume.

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

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Cavalieris Principle: Solutions

Solutions
Solution to problem 7. To nd the length of each rectangle for the right triangle, recognize that the two triangles shown here are similar, and set up a proportion.

hi h 10 = b bi

So the length of the ith rectangle (with the top one being bi rectangle 1 and the bottom rectangle being 10) is 10 . For the general case of n rectangles, each 10 is replaced by n, so bi = bi . n h h hbi Each height is 10 (or in general n ), so the areas are 100 (or hbi ). n2 For the obtuse triangle, there are four right triangles to work with. The similar triangles are separated in this diagram:

This proportion comes from the rst pair of similar triangles:

hi h = 10 x xi

So xi = pair:

xi . 10

Another proportion can be written from the other

hi h = 10 b+x bi + xi +xi bi xi xi This means bi + xi = bi10 = 10 + 10 . However, since xi = 10 , you can subtract an equivalent amount from both sides to get bi bi = 10 . (Similarly in the general case, bi = bi .) So again the n hbi hbi area of the ith rectangle is 100 (or n2 ).
Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002 c EDC 2002

Cavalieris Principle: Solutions

For both triangles, adding the areas of the rectangles gives n(n+1) hb the same thing: n 2 (1 + 2 + 3 + + n), which is hb 2n2 . The 2 +n 1 1 fraction can be rewritten n2n 2 , or 2 + 2n . As n gets larger, the second term gets closer to 0, so the whole fraction gets closer to 1 . So both areas are 1 bh. 2 2 Solution to problem 9. After breaking either cylinder into h 10 smaller ones, each small cylinder has radius r and height 10 , h so each small cylinder has volume r2 10 . This is true for both large cylinders (the right one and the oblique one), because their cross sections are always circles with radius r. There are 10 of h these in each, so the total volume is 10r2 10 , or r2 h. If you break each into n smaller right cylinders, each smaller h cylinder has radius r and height n . There are n in each large cylinder, so their volumes are again r2 h. Since this is true no matter how many cylinders you use, both cylinders have a volume of r2 h. Solution to problem 10. First break the cone on the left into n cylinders. To nd the radius of the ith cylinder, consider the right triangle formed by the altitude and radius shown in the diagram. Connecting the two vertices that arent already touching gives a line that goes through the bottom edge of each cylinder:

The triangle formed by the ith cylinder is similar to the big triangle, so you can set up a proportion:
hi n

ri r
ri . n

So the radius of the ith cylinder is h cylinder is ( ir )2 ( n ). n

The volume of the ith

For the other cone, if you show that the centers of the circular cross sections are collinear, you can set up proportions in the same way as in the solution to problem 7. So rst, consider the
Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002 c EDC 2002

Cavalieris Principle: Solutions

triangular cross section, with the diameter of one of the circular cross sections showing. Triangle ABC is similar to DBE :

Theyre similar by the AA similarity theorem. Notice DE is parallel to AC .

If you connect the midpoint of the base with the vertex of the cone, you have two more similar triangles on the right ( M BC and N BE ):

The bases of these two triangles are proportional, and the bases of the rst two similar triangles are proportional. Since M C is half AC , N E must also be half DE , so N is a center of a circular cross section. Thus, the centers of the circular cross sections are collinear. You now can set up the proportions for the second cone:

hi h = n x xi

So xi =

xi . n

Also,

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

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Cavalieris Principle: Solutions

hi h n , = r+x ri + x i xi so ri + xi = ri+ = ri + xi . However, since xi = xi , ri = n n n n ir 2 h So again the volume of the ith cylinder is ( n ) ( n ).

ri . n

Since the n cylinders have the same volume, their total volume is the same. Again, as you use more cylinders, their volume more closely approximates the volumes of the cones. So the two cones must have the same volume. Students dont need to nd the actual volume formula, but in the interest of completeness, the derivation is included here:
r 2 h r 2 h The volume of all n cylinders is ( n ) ( n ) + ( 2 ) (n) + + n n n nr 2 h r2 h 1 2 2 ( n ) ( n ), or ( n3 ) i=1 i . Since i=1 i is 6 (n)(n +1)(2n +1), n+1) the total volume becomes r2 h (n+1)(2 . By making numerical 6n2 approximations for larger and larger n, a student will probably . Algebraically this conjecture (correctly) that this approaches 1 3 can be found by rst expanding the numerator and then dividing each term by the denominator:

2n2 + 3n + 1 (n + 1)(2n + 1) = 6n2 6n2 1 1 1 + + 2 = 3 2n 6n As n goes to innity, the last two terms go to 0, leaving only 1 . 3 2 The volume of the cylinders approaches 1 r h . 3

Problems with a Point: May 21, 2002

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