§6.

4 Volume by Shells, Page 1

Cylindrical Shells
You can solve many challenging volume problems using the disk/washer method. However, there
are some volume problems that are difficult to solve using this method. For this reason, we will
investigate the shell method which is used to compute the volume of solids of revolution.

1. Consider the region bounded by the graphs of y = 2x − x2 and the x-axis. Let S be the solid
produced by rotating the bounded region about the y-axis.
(a) Sketch the graph of the bounded region. Draw a rectangle with width ∆y inside the
region, perpendicular to the y-axis.

(b) Imagine rotation the rectangle about the y-axis. Sketch the result of this rotation. Can
you determine the volume of this washer easily? Why or why not?

(c) Sketch the bounded region again, this time drawing a rectangle with width ∆x inside the
region, perpendicular to the x-axis.
§6.4 Volume by Shells, Page 2

(d) Again, imagine a rotation of the rectangle about the y-axis. Sketch the result of this
rotation. What you have now is called a cylindrical shell.

(e) Next, imagine you were to cut the cylindrical shell and unroll it in such a manner as
to produce a 3-dimensional rectangular solid. Sketch your result and determine the
volume.

(f) Finally, use your result in part (e) to calculate the volume of the solid, S.
§6.4 Volume by Shells, Page 3

2. Using the method of cylindrical shells, calculate the volume of the solid obtained by rotating
the region bounded by the curves y = x2 and y = x + 2 about the line x = 3.