FACULTY MEMBER-MtM MAT-130 LENGTH OF PLANE CURVES

Arc Length
In this section we are going to look at computing the arc length of a function. 
Because it’s easy enough to derive the formulas that we’ll use in this section we will
derive one of them and leave the other to you to derive. We want to determine the
length of the continuous function y  f (x)  on the interval  a, b .  Initially we need to
estimate the length of the curve.  We’ll do this by dividing the interval up into n equal
subintervals each of width  and we’ll denote the point on the curve at each point by
Pi.  We can then approximate the curve by a series of straight lines connecting the
points.  Here is a sketch of this situation for n=9.

Now denote the length of each of these line segments by  and the length
of the curve will then be approximately,

and we can get the exact length by taking n larger and larger.  In other words, the
exact length will be,

Now, let’s get a better grasp on the length of each of these line segments.  First, on
each segment let’s define y  y  y  f ( x )  f ( x )
i i i 1 i i 1

We can then compute directly the length of the line segments as follows.

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 FACULTY MEMBER-MtM MAT-130 LENGTH OF PLANE CURVES
By the Mean Value Theorem we know that on the interval  there is a point
 so that,

Therefore, the length can now be written as,

The exact length of the curve is then,

However, using the definition of the definite integral, this is nothing more than,

A slightly more convenient notation (in my opinion anyway) is the following.

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In a similar fashion we can also derive a formula for  on .  This formula is,

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Again, the second form is probably a little more convenient. Note the difference in the
derivative under the square root!  Don’t get too confused.  With one we differentiate
with respect to x and with the other we differentiate with respect to y.  One way to
keep the two straight is to notice that the differential in the “denominator” of the
derivative will match up with the differential in the integral.  This is one of the
reasons why the second form is a little more convenient.

Before we work any examples we need to make a small change in notation.  Instead of
having two formulas for the arc length of a function we are going to reduce it, in part,
to a single formula.

From this point on we are going to use the following formula for the length of the
curve.

where,

Note that no limits were put on the integral as the limits will depend upon the ds that
we’re using.  Using the first ds will require x limits of integration and using the
second ds will require y limits of integration. Thinking of the arc length formula as a
single integral with different ways to define ds will be convenient when we run across
arc lengths in future sections.  Also, this ds notation will be a nice notation for the
next section as well.
Determine the arc length along the function y  2 x  1 from x 1 to x  3.

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3
1
Compute the length of the curve f ( x)  ( x  5) 2 over the interval  0, 7.
3

and

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Compute the length of the curve y  x over the interval 1, 2.
3
2

1 4 1 2
Compute the length of the curve x  g ( y) 
8
y  y
4 over the interval
1  y  4.

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Calculate the length of the curve

y=f(x)=x4+1/(32x2) on [1, 2]
Solution

a , a  0
a2  a  
a , a  0

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3
2
x  ( y  1) 2
Determine the length of 3  between .
Solution There is a very common mistake that students make in problems of this
type.  Many students see that the function is in the form  and they immediately
decide that it will be too difficult to work with it in that form so they solve for y to get
the function into the form .  While that can be done here it will lead to a
messier integral for us to deal with. Sometimes it’s just easier to work with functions
in the form .  In fact, if you can work with functions in the form  then
you can work with functions in the form .  There really isn’t a difference
between the two so don’t get excited about functions in the form . Let’s
compute the derivative and the root.

As you can see keeping the function in the form  is going to lead to a very easy
integral.  To see what would happen if we tried to work with the function in the form
 see the next example. Let’s get the length.
4 3 4
2 14
L 
1
y dy  y 2
3

3
1

As noted in the last example we really do have a choice as to which ds we use. 

Provided we can get the function in the form required for a particular ds we can use
it.  However, as also noted above, there will often be a significant difference in
difficulty in the resulting integrals.  Let’s take a quick look at what would happen in
the previous example if we did put the function into the form y  f (x) . 
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Compute the length of the curve:

Solution The differential of arc length is:

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 FACULTY MEMBER-MtM MAT-130 LENGTH OF PLANE CURVES

Arc Length with Parametric Equations

In this section we will look at the arc length of the parametric curve given by,

We will also be assuming that the curve is traced out exactly once as t increases from
α to β.  Also, for the purposes of the derivation that we’re going to use we will assume
that the curve is traced out from left to right as t increases.  This is equivalent to
saying,

This is not actually required for the final formula, but as noted above we’ll need it for
our derivation.  If the curve isn’t traced out from left to right we would need to go
through a slightly more complicated derivation. So, let’s start out the derivation by
recalling the arc length formula as we first derived it in the arc length section.

where,

We will use the first ds above because we have a nice formula for the derivative in
terms of the parametric equations.  To use this we’ll also need to know that,

The arc length formula then becomes,

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This is a particularly unpleasant formula.  However, if we factor out the denominator

from the square root, making use of our assumption that the curve is being traced out
from left to right we can drop the absolute value bars on the derivative which will
allow us to cancel the two derivatives that are outside the square root this gives,

Notice that we could have used the second formula for ds above if we had assumed
instead that

If we had gone this route in the derivation we would have gotten the same formula.

Find the arc length of the parametric curve x=t2, y=(2/3)

(2t+1)3/2 from t = 0 to t = 3.
Solution

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Determine the length of the curve given by the parametric
equations.

Solution We know that this is a circle of radius 3 centered at the origin. It will be
traced out exactly once in this range. So, we can use the formula we derived above. 
We’ll first need the following,

The length is then,

Since this is a circle we could have just used the fact that the length of the circle is just
the circumference of the circle.  This is a nice way, in this case, to verify our result.

Let’s take a look at one possible consequence of a curve is traced out more than once
and we try to find the length of the curve without taking this into account.

Use the arc length formula for the parametric equations to

determine the length of the curve

Solution Notice that this is the identical circle that we had in the previous example
and so the length is still 6π.  However, for the range given we know trace out the
curve three times instead once as required for the formula.  Despite that restriction
let’s use the formula anyway and see what happens. In this case the derivatives are,
dx dy
 9 cos(3t ) ,  9 sin(3t )
dt dt
2 2

and the length formula gives, L 

0
81sin 2 (3t )  81cos 2 (3t ) dt   9 dt  18
0

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Suppose that you want to design a ski lift and need to determine how
much cable will be needed between two posts that are 66 feet apart.
The formula for the cable is y = 50 cosh(x/50)

=  70.9 feet.
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Evaluate the length of the graph of y = x from the 2

origin to the point (2, 4).

 
Solution Let f(x) = y = x2. Then f '(x) = 2x. The required arc length is:

It follows that:

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Determine the length of  for .  Assume that y

is positive.

Solution The derivative and root will be,

Before writing down the length notice that we were given x limits and we will need
y limits for this ds.  With the assumption that y is positive there are easy enough to
get.  They are,
The integral for the arc length is then,

This integral will require the following trig substitution.

The length is then,

Find the arc length of the curve y  ln x from x=1 to x=2.

Using trig. Substitution

x  tan  ,  dx  sec 2  d

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x 2
 tan   2
1 2
sec 
3 2
tan   1
2
L 
1
tan 
sec 2  d  
x 1
tan 
d  
1
tan 
sec  d

 5 1 
 5 2  ln 

2 2 2

Assignment Problems/Past Exam Questions/Questions Bank:

3
1
Find the exact arc length of the curve over the stated interval x  ( y 2  2) 2 from
3
y=0 to y=1.
Find the exact arc length of the curve y = (x6+8)/(16x2) over the interval from x =
2 to x = 3.
Find the exact arc length of the curve 24 xy  y  48 from y=1 to y= 4. 4

Find the exact arc length of the parametric curve x  (1  t ) , y  (1  t ) (0  t  1) 2 3

Find the exact arc length of the parametric curve

x  cos t  t sin t , y  sin t  t cos t (0  t   ).

Find the exact arc length of the parametric curve x  e t cos t , y  e t sin t (0  t 
2
).

Find the exact arc length of the parametric curve

x  e t (cos t  sin t ), y  e t (cos t  sin t ) (1  t  4).
t
Find the length of the parameterized curve x  e t  t , y  4e 2 , for 0  t  1.

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