Peliminary inspection of these sites shows a lot about techniques for solving integrals but not a lot on setting one up for the situations I tried to describe. Maybe what I'm looking for is a good mechanics text. The one I have has examples in it that I can't follow, not because my integration is rusty, but because my text starts with a simple enough relation and the next line is the result of a triple integration.
Example of Hw problem:
Calculate the gravitational field vector due to a homogeneous cylinder at exterior points on the axis of the cylinder.
Only because the problem states that the result is to be found by computing the force directly; start with g = F/m
g = -GMrhat/ r^2
I can get that symmetry gives us that there is only force in z direction, and choosing a reference point on the z axis and pick an arbitrary point on the surface of mass dm- where dm = rhodV . The point dm connects to the (0, 0, z) reference point with a radial line and makes an angle with the z axis that we can put into the integral as the magnitude of dgz, so what goes into the integral is cos(angle)--where cos(angle) =(zo-z)^2/((sqrt r^2 + (zo -z)^2)).
Now, there's rhodV = dm = rhodr rdangle dz
Somehow, I have in my notes the final integral, skipping the 3 limits of integration resloves itself into, bringing rho outside, rho///drdangledz(zo -z)/(((zo -z)^2 + r^2))^3/2)). Even if there's an error in my notes, I'm stuck on the set up.
I can't figure out why the top term is no longer squared. Looking back at the origional formula; gz = -Grho(integral)cosangle/r^2.
I've drawn a triangle on my picture connecting the z axis across to the surface point, to the radial line, and back to the point zo. Now, I'm confused-- I've labled the radius of the cylinder R and the radial vector from reference point to zo is labled little r. To evaluate the integrand I need to get r in terms of R ? Just stuck!
See, what I need are some examples with some intermediate steps in setting up these types of problems.
Thanks