Integration over areas 2

We have covered the case of integrating small elements with sides of length dx and
dy.

However, this is not always the most efficient way to integrate over an area. We can
construct elements dA in whatever shape is most convenient.

Example – a rectangle.

To find the area of a rectangle, we could integrate over all the elements dA = dxdy.
But because of the symmetry of the problem, we can also choose a strip to integrate
over:

𝐼 = ∫ 𝑂 𝑑𝑥.
x
This means adding up all the strips, each one of area 𝑂 𝑑𝑥.
For a circle, we can split the area into concentric rings:

The area of this ring is 2𝜋 dr. To calculate the area of the circle, we can just add up
all the rings out to same radius R:
𝑅 𝑅 𝑅 𝑅
1
𝐴 = ∫ 2𝜋𝑟 𝑑𝑟 = ∫ 𝑑𝐴 = 2𝜋 ∫ 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 = 2𝜋 [ 𝑟 2 ] = 𝜋𝑅 2 .
0 0 0 2 0

Now consider a pipe with a circular cross-section. Water is flowing steadily through
the pipe, but it has a different velocity at different radii.
Suppose that the velocity is given by:
𝑣(𝑟) = (𝑅 − 𝑟)2 = 𝑟 2 − 2𝑅𝑟 + 𝑅 2 ,
where 𝑅 is the radius of the pipe.
Consider a ring of radius r and dr wide. The volume of water passing through this
ring per unit time is:
𝑉(𝑟) = 𝑣(𝑟)𝑑𝐴,
the velocity (is the distance travelled in 1 second) multiplied by the area of the ring.
We want to find the total volume flowing through the pipe per unit time, so we want to
add up the flow through each ring.
𝑅
𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤 = ∫ 𝑣(𝑟) 𝑑𝐴 .
0

We know that dA = 2𝜋 r dr, and we know v(r):

𝑅
𝐹 = ∫ (𝑟 2 − 2𝑅𝑟 + 𝑅 2 ) 2𝜋𝑟 𝑑𝑟
0
𝑅
3 2 2
1 4 2 3 1 2 2 𝑅
= 2𝜋 ∫ 𝑟 − 2𝑅𝑟 + 𝑅 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 = 2𝜋 [ 𝑟 − 𝑅𝑟 + 𝑅 𝑟 ]
0 4 3 2 0
4 4
𝑅 2 4 1 4 𝜋𝑅
= 2𝜋 ( − 𝑅 + 𝑅 ) = .
4 3 2 6

By choosing dA appropriately, we can integrate quantities over specific areas. You’ll

learn to choose the most efficient dA with experience.