Calculating Flux Through a Sphere: Fluid Density and Velocity Field Analysis

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The discussion focuses on calculating the rate of flow outward through a sphere for a fluid with a density of 2 and a specified velocity field. The user initially set up the integral in spherical coordinates but encountered discrepancies in their final answer. The correct approach involves applying Gauss' law, which indicates that the divergence of the velocity field is 2, leading to a flux calculation of 2*(4/3*pi*2^3). The user overlooked the r^2 factor in the surface area element, which resulted in an incorrect final answer.

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Here's the question:

A fluid has density 2 and velocity field http://ada.math.uga.edu/webwork2_files/tmp/equations/92/09afbe0bd85ee163f9c2c6664132361.png .[/URL]
Find the rate of flow outward through the sphere http://ada.math.uga.edu/webwork2_files/tmp/equations/49/de1fad897871c3c2ac5109463da2a11.png .[/URL]

So far I've found n, which is
1/2x+1/2y+1/2z

and F dot n gives z^2.

I converted to spherical coordinates and z^2 is equal to 4cos^2[phi].

My integral is set up as:
4*(int[0-2pi] int[0-pi] (cos^2[phi]*sin[phi]dphi dtheta.

The first integral is -1/3cos^3[phi] from 0-pi which is 1/3 - - 1/3 = 2/3

The second integral gives 2/3*2*pi, so the entire thing is 4*2/3*2*pi.

I thought I was just supposed to multiply that by 2 (the density) but that's not the right answer. Can someone tell me what I did wrong or what I'm supposed to do with the density?

Thanks a lot.
 
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One way to verify the answer is by Gauss' law (aka the divergence theorem). The divergence of the velocity field is seen to be 2, so the flux out of the sphere is 2*(4/3*pi*2^3), which is off by a factor of 4 from what you got. It seems like you forgot the r^2 factor in the surface area element. What you did with the density is correct since it's constant here.
 

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