How Do You Integrate to Find the Hypervolume of a Hypersphere?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the integration process to find the hypervolume of a hypersphere, specifically addressing the mathematical formulation and challenges involved in the integration. Participants explore different approaches and coordinate systems to simplify the problem.

Discussion Character

  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant presents an integral for the hypervolume of a hypersphere but expresses difficulty in performing the integration.
  • Another participant requests clarification on the original problem and suggests using hyperspherical coordinates to simplify the integral.
  • One participant claims that the hypersphere has zero volume, which is contested by another who asserts that it does have a "hyper-volume."
  • A suggestion is made to use a trigonometric substitution to facilitate the integration process.
  • Another participant provides a specific substitution for the integration, detailing the relationships between variables.
  • A participant briefly mentions the concept of the volume enclosed by a hypersphere without elaborating further.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

There is disagreement regarding the volume of the hypersphere, with some participants asserting it has a hyper-volume while others claim it has zero volume. The integration method remains unresolved, with multiple approaches suggested but no consensus reached.

Contextual Notes

Participants have not fully defined the coordinate conversions or assumptions underlying their claims, which may affect the integration process and the interpretation of the hypersphere's volume.

Aki
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Help, I'm trying to find the hypervolume of a hypersphere and I'm stuck on this:

[tex]V^4= 2(\frac{4\pi} {3}) \int_0^r (\sqrt{r^2-x^2}) ^3 dx[/tex]

I don't know how to do the integration, and I can't expand the [tex](\sqrt{r^2-x^2}) ^3[/tex]
The answer should be [tex]\frac{\pi ^2}{2}r^4[/tex]

Please help, thanks
 
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can you please state the original problem in it's entirety?

what are your coordinate conversions (i.e. what is [itex]x[/itex] in terms of [itex]r[/itex], [itex]\theta[/itex], etc.)?

often times by converting to other coordinates (hyperspherical coordinates, in this case) the integral becomes simpler.
 
Anyway,it's useless.The hypersphere has zero volume.

Daniel.
 
The hypersphere does have a "hyper-volume" (or, more generally, a "measure")!

Aki: in order to integrate [tex]V^4= 2(\frac{4\pi} {3}) \int_0^r (\sqrt{r^2-x^2}) ^3 dx[/tex], did you consider using a trigonometric substitution, say x= r sin(θ)?
 
That's the BALL,the hypersphere (the S_{3} being the smallest in dimension) is a hypersurface and has zero hypervolume.

Daniel.
 
[tex]x=r \cos \theta , \sqrt {r^2 - x^2} = r \sin \theta , dx = -r \sin \theta d\theta[/tex]
 
The volume enclosed by a hypersphere.
 

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