Volumes of Revolution - Ellipsoid

Noir
Messages
27
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


An ellipse is rotated around the y-axis, find the volume of this solid.


Homework Equations


x^2 / a^2 + y^2 / b^2 = 1
<br /> \pi\int_{a}^-a x^2 dy<br />


The Attempt at a Solution


I'm having trouble solving this; I know that the upper and lower bounds of the curve occur on the y-axis so I think that the ellipse equation can be rearranged to form;
x^2 / a^2 + 0 = 1
Thats where the upper and lower bounds for the integral come from.
However I know that the volume of an ellipsoid is V = 4/3*pi*a*b^2.
I just can't seem to get it to work.

Any help is appreciated :)
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Shouldn't your limits be ±b ?

\frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1 \Rightarrow \frac{x^2}{a^2}=1-\frac{y^2}{b^2}

find x2 in terms of y2, then put that into π∫x2 dy from b to -b and calculate.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top