Circulation of a triangular region

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the circulation of the line integral \( y^2dx + x^2dy \) for a triangular region defined by the equations \( x+y=1 \), \( x=0 \), and \( y=0 \). The solution employs Green's Theorem to determine the curl \( 2x - 2y \) and integrates over the specified bounds, yielding an answer of 0. However, discrepancies arose when verifying the solution through direct line integrals, particularly along the line segment \( x+y=1 \), where a negative sign was identified as a critical error in parametrization.

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Homework Statement


Find the circulation (line integral) of y2dx+x2dy for the boundary of a triangular region contained within x+y=1, x=0, and y=0.

Homework Equations


Green's theorem

The Attempt at a Solution


I think I actually already got the solution; I used the Green's theorem to get the curl of 2x-2y and integrated that for x from 0 to 1-y and y from 0 to 1 to get an answer of 0.

However, I was a bit confused as I was trying to verify the solution by calculating the line integrals of each segment of the triangular region; I keep getting a different answer. I know that along the two axes, x/dx and y/dy are 0, respectively, so the line integrals of those would be 0, making the line x+y=1 the only contributor to the total integral.

I parametrized y as 1-t and x as t, and integrated [(1-x)^2+x^2]*sqrt(2) from 1 to 0 of t; however, the answer to that is not 0.

Why am I getting different answers here? Help would be appreciated.
 
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I get the same answer using Green's thm.
Looking at the line integral over x+y = 1 of y^2 dx + x^2 dy, it looks like you missed a negative sign in your parametrization.
dx = -dy, since the slope of the line is -1.
 
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Ah, okay. Thank you very much.
 

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