# How do you find the area under a diagonal hyperbola xy=a where a is a constant?

1. Nov 23, 2011

### joebohr

^topic

2. Nov 23, 2011

### rock.freak667

What are limits of the region you need to get the area of?

3. Nov 23, 2011

### joebohr

Just, what is the general process for finding the area? Say for a=3.

4. Nov 23, 2011

### I like Serena

Rewrite your equation to the form y=f(x) and take the integral.

5. Nov 23, 2011

### dimension10

I'll assume your limits are 1 and e.

$$xy=a$$

$$y=\frac{a}{x}$$

$$\mbox{Area under the curve}=\int\limits_{1}^{e}\frac{a}{x}\mbox{d}x$$

$$\mbox{Area under the curve}=a\left(\mbox{ln}(e)-\mbox{ln}(1)\right)$$

$$\mbox{Area under the curve}=a(1-0)$$

$$\mbox{Area}=a$$

6. Nov 23, 2011

### joebohr

Perhaps I should have specified. I knew how to find the are under the curve from a to b, where a is not equal to zero, but wanted to find the area of the curve in either the 1st or 3rd quadrant (that is, from 0 to b or from -b to 0).

7. Nov 23, 2011

### dimension10

Is the a you are talking about the same as the a in xy=a?

8. Nov 23, 2011

### joebohr

Nope, sorry about that, I should have used different variables. The second a (as in from a to b) just represents that I wasn't asking about the integral from c to b where c≠0 and was concerned with the integral from 0 to b.

9. Nov 23, 2011

### dimension10

Ok. So,

$$\mbox{Area under the curve}=\int_{c}^{b}\frac{a}{x}\mbox{d}x$$

$$\mbox{Area under the curve}= a \left(\mbox{ln} |b|-\mbox{ln} |c| \right)$$

10. Nov 23, 2011

### joebohr

Right, as I said I got this result when I tried myself. But I wanted to know what to do when c=0.

11. Nov 23, 2011

### dimension10

The area is infinite because ln(0)= -∞

12. Nov 24, 2011

### joebohr

That's the problem, and it's what made me think I needed a new approach. Because obviously a hyperbola in the 1st quadrant doesn't have infinite area as it has asymptotes at the x and y axis. Is there perhaps another way to figure this out?

13. Nov 24, 2011

### I like Serena

Nope. The hyperbola in the 1st quadrant does have an infinite area.
What makes you think that it doesn't?

14. Nov 24, 2011

### joebohr

Because it has a finite area except at the values x=0 and y=0 which approach a negligible area along the axes. If you graph it, the area is significantly less than a squared. Are there at least any approximation methods (maybe perturbation) out there that would work?

15. Nov 24, 2011

### I like Serena

Negligible area it may be, but it extends to infinity, making it an infinite area in this case.

I can give you 2 examples that demonstrate the difference and the method how to calculate it (integration).

Example 1: x^2 y = 1

The corresponding area from x=1 to x=infinity is:
$$\textit{Area-from-1} = \int_1^\infty {1 \over x^2} dx = \left( - {1 \over x} \right) \large|_1^\infty = 1$$

This is, as you can see, a finite value of only 1.

Example 2: x y = 1

The corresponding area from x=1 to x=infinity is:
$$\textit{Area-from-1} = \int_1^\infty {1 \over x} dx = \left( \ln x \right) \large|_1^\infty = \infty$$

As you can see, this is not a finite value.

16. Nov 24, 2011

### joebohr

Wait, but for the second example, isn't the following true:
$\int$$^{\infty}_{1}$$\frac{1}{x}$dx$\equiv$-ln(1)+$lim_{x->{\infty}}$ln(x)=0

?

Also, are there any clever approximations for this area? Would translating the figure into say (x-3)(y-3)=a make any difference (no more singularity)? How would I find the area under a different type of hyperbola (is there a method that works for all hyperbolas that aren't in the form xy=1)? Thanks.

17. Nov 24, 2011

### I like Serena

I'm afraid not. Your limit approaches infinity instead of 0.

18. Nov 24, 2011

### joebohr

Yeah, your right, but Wolfram was giving me a different result a minute ago, or maybe I made a typing mistake. Anyway, can you help with my other questions (sorry for so many)? There has to be some way to approximate it, especially considering that the hyperbola all but approaches the axes at an upper limit of 10*a.

19. Nov 24, 2011

### I like Serena

Which questions?
The questions I see, have already been answered by dimension10.
He did not make any mistakes.

20. Nov 24, 2011

### joebohr

These questions, you may not have noticed them because they were on the first page. Thank you for clearing up the first matter, I did not mean to imply that anyone other than myself was making a mistake.