Complicated Definite Double Integral

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on solving a complicated definite double integral related to the gravitational effects of a meteoroid on the Earth's mantle. The equation presented involves integrating with respect to both "r" and "a", where the "r" integral is manageable, but the "a" integral poses significant challenges. A substitution method is suggested, but the integral is identified as an elliptic function of the third kind, indicating that it may not be expressible in elementary functions. Users are encouraged to consider numerical evaluation for the "a" integral.

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dBrandon/dC
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I've been working on a problem involving a large meteoroid passing over the Earth and what its gravitational effects would be on the Earth's mantle. I developed an equation for this, and I've worked it down to a certain point, but unfortunately, I'm not sure how to finally solve it. By the way, I downloaded a free trial version of Mathematica, but it doesn't seem to be able to solve the problem, either.

The equation is as follows:

Math Eq.jpg


(I'm new here, so I didn't know the best way to input an equation.)
Any help that could be provided would be very much appreciated.

- Brandon
 
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The "r" part of the integral is doable. I get
[tex]P=\int_{0}^{\pi}2\rho Gmdr^{2}a\sin{a}\dot ( \ln{\sqrt{r^{2}+d^{2}-\cos{a}} +r} -\frac{r}{\sqrt{r^{2}+d^{2}-\cos{a}}})da\left|^{r=6.275*10^6}_{r=6.175*10^6}[/tex]

Integrating the "a" part seems like it should be a nightmare, though. You could do a substitution u=-cos(a) if it wasn't for that a sitting outside. It's probably not expressible in elementary functions. Could you just evaluate it numerically?
 
Starting with the a integral,

[tex]\int \frac{a \sin a\, da}{(b^2 - \cos a)^{3/2}}[/tex]

is an elliptic function of the 3rd kind according to http://integrals.wolfram.com.

My knowledge of elliptic functions doesn't extend to knowing if your definite integral equals something nice, but at least that's a start.
 

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