Struggling to Integrate Complicated Expression - Need Help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sombra
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Integration
AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on integrating a complex expression involving a square root and polynomial terms. The user is struggling particularly with the second term, which includes a square root, and seeks guidance on how to approach the integration. A suggestion is made to use a "u" substitution, specifically letting u = x - 3, to simplify the expression. The user has made progress on the first and last terms of the integration but remains uncertain about applying the derivative for the middle term. The overall goal is to find the volume of an ellipse defined by a specific equation, which adds to the complexity of the integration problem.
Sombra
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
I'm trying to integrate this awful expression (by dx):

{[1-(x-3)^2]/9 - 4[(1-(x-3)^2)/9)^1/2] + 4

Help! How can I integrate this? It's so complicated. For the first part, would it be [x- (x-3)^3]/27x? For the last one I know it is 4x, so that's not a problem, but its mainly the second term with the square root that's the worst. Thank you!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
By the way, if you get a nonreal answer for this like I did on the calculator, this problem is part of my bigger problem of finding the volume of the ellipse:
y = ((1-(x-3)^2)/9)-2, which is supposed to have its center at 3, cross the x-axis at 0 and 6, and have a maximum y value at 2, rotated 360 degrees about the x- axis. Maybe I got up to that point wrong, but what I did was find the volume of a section in the figure, which I said was V= pi(y^2)dx and in order to get y^2, I squared the equation for the ellipse that I gave at the top. That's where my above question comes in. Thanks.
 
Do a "u" substitution to see if that helps you look at it better.

u = x-3

\int\frac{1-u^2}{9}du-\int4\sqrt{\frac{1-u^2}{9}}du + \int4dx

EDIT: Also, remember that \sqrt{\frac{a}{n}} = \frac{\sqrt{a}}{\sqrt{n}}
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ok, so I ended up figuring out the first and last terms without substitution, but I'm using it for the middle one. I sad let u= x-3 and then du/dx= 1 so du=dx. But in order to do that, I think I still need to have the derivitive of 1-u^2 in order to apply the rule, which would be 2u, but how can that be possible?
 
For the first term, think of the trig inverse functions.
 
I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'
Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
Back
Top