Lab #15, MATH 2491

You may refer to Sec 45 of Main Text or ask the lab instructor if needed.

1. Discussion questions
a. How do we find the moments of volume/surface area and the centroids of solids
and surfaces of revolution? How are these moments related to the moments of
area/arc length/force? What are the units of moments of volume/surface area?
b. How do we find the centroid of a shape that consists of multiple parts?

2. (II) For each of the following solids of revolution, find the

location of the centroid by the methods of (i) disks/washers
and (ii) cylindrical shells. Assume that the curve BA is a
parabola whose vertex is at B. Set up the integrals and use a
calculator to evaluate.
a. Region OBD rotating about the x-axis
b. Region BDA rotating about the y-axis
c. Region BAC rotating about the line AC
d. Region OBD rotating about the line AC
e. Region BDA rotating about the line BC

3. (II) For each of the following surfaces of revolution, find the location of the centroid. Set
up the integrals and use a calculator to evaluate.
1
a. The curve y   e x  e  x  , x   0,1 rotating about y-axis
2
1 x
b. The curve y   e  e  x  , x   0,1 rotating about x-axis
2
c. The curve x  4 y  y 2 , y   2, 4 rotating about x-axis
d. The curve x  4 y  y 2 , y   2, 4 rotating about the line x = 6
e. The boundary of the region inside the curve x 2 3  y 2 3  1 in the first quadrant
rotating about the y-axis.
f. The boundary of the region from (e) rotating about the line y = 1.

(a), (b) (c), (d) (e), (f)

4. (II) The onion dome of a Russian church has the
shape shown in the figure on the right. Its
profile is modelled by
 y
x  y sin  
4
from y = –11 to y = 0, where x and y are both in
metres. Find the centroid of this onion dome. You may express your result as an integral
and evaluate using a calculator.

5. (II) A particular door handle resembles a solid

of revolution obtained by rotating the region
bounded by the x-axis and the curve
1
y  x 2  x 3 about the line y  1 , where x and
4
y are in cm. In the following, you may set up the
integrals and evaluate using a calculator.
a. Find the centroid if the door handle is solid.
b. Find the centroid if the door handle is hollow.

6. (II) An airplane fuel tank is

designed to have a shape of
a solid obtained by rotating
the region bounded by the
x-axis and the curve y  c x  x  a  about the x-axis, where a and c are constants. Set
2

up integrals that give the centroid of the fuel tank as a definite integral in terms of a and c
if the tank is empty.

7. (II) Nosecones (of aircrafts, rockets, missiles, bullets, etc) come with different shapes
based on the designed speeds, ranges and types of fluid they need to travel through. The
nosecones we are considering below have shapes obtained by rotating the following
regions about the dashed lines.

Conical Parabolic Elliptical Hemispherical

You may assume that the cross sections of parabolic and elliptical nosecones given above
have horizontal tangent lines at the flat base.
a. If the nosecones are solid, find
i. the volume V,
 ii. the centroid x from the flat base,
b. If the nosecones are hollow, ignore the flat base and find
i. the surface area S,
ii. the centroid x from the flat base,

8. (II) A reflecting telescope requires a parabolic mirror to reflect light to a detector. But
because a large parabolic mirror is very expensive to produce, some telescopes use
cylindrical containers filled with mercury or other silvery liquid alloys. When the
cylinder and the liquid metal rotate together, centripetal force will cause the liquid metal
to form a parabolic surface whose height h relative to its centre is given by
2
h r2
2g
where r is the distance at each point on the parabolic surface from the axis of rotation (i.e.
the radius) and ω is the angular speed in rad/s. One example of this type of telescope is
The Large Zenith Telescope located in Maple Ridge, BC. The diameter of the liquid
metal reflector in this telescope is 6.00 m.

Suppose that the radius of the container is 1 m and the

focal length of the parabolic surface is 3 m, i.e.
1
h  r2
12
a. Find the depth of the liquid metal at the centre if 200 L of liquid metal is in the
container.
b. Find the centroid of the liquid metal.

9. (II) The surface obtained by cutting out of a sphere by two parallel

planes is called a spherical zone (the darker region shown on the right).
a. Find the centroid of the spherical zone formed by rotating the
semicircular segment x  r 2  y 2 for y   a, b about the y-
axis, where  r  a  b  r .
b. The following spherical zones all have the centroid at half of its height from the
bottom of the spherical zones.

Explain why this happens.

 10. (III, Maple) A channel marker buoy consists of a
hemispherical base surmounted by a tower supporting
a navigation light. The tower and the light (everything
above the centre O of the hemispherical base) have a
combined mass of 25 kg and a combined centre of
mass 1 m above O. The base is a hemispherical shell of
radius 0.5 m and has a per-area density of 10 kg/m2.
a. To keep the buoy upright, the centre of mass of
the entire buoy has to be below O. Explain why.
b. Find the mass and the centre of mass of the hemispherical base.
c. Hardened sand is placed at the bottom of the marker to keep the buoy upright.
Find the centre of mass of the sand if it is filled to a level |c| metres below O.
(Hint: if O is at y = 0, then the sand is filled to y = c < 0).
d. If the density of sand is 2000 kg/m2, at least how many kg of sand should be
placed so that the buoy can stay upright?
e. How many kg of sand should be placed so that the centre of mass of the entire
buoy is at its lowest position (i.e. the buoy is the most stable).
f. Does the buoy still float with part of the base above water if the amount of sand
calculated from (e) is in the buoy? Note that the mass of the water displaced by
the buoy (i.e. the volume of the part of the base that is below water multiplied by
1000 kg/m3, the density of water) is equal to the mass of the entire buoy.

Answers:
2 8 2 4
2) a) disk: V     2  x  dx   , M V , y   x   2  x  dx  
2 2
0 3 0 3
2 8 21 4
shell: V   2 y  2  y  dy   , M V , y    2  y   2 y  2  y  dy   ,
0 3 0 2 3

 x , y    ,0 
1
2 
2 40
b) washer: V    8  2  y    2  y   dy   ,
2
0   3
2 28
M V , x   y   8  2  y    2  y   dy  
2
0   3
2  1  4  1  40
shell: V  0
2 x  x  x2  dx   2 x  2  x2  dx   ,
 8  2
 8  3
2 1 1 2  1 2 41 1 2  1 2 28
MV ,x    4  x  x   2 x  x  x  dx  2  2  x   2 x  2  x  dx  
0 2 8   8  2 8   8  3

 x , y    0,
7

 10 
  16
 128
 
2 2 2 2
c) disk: V    4  8  2  y  dy   , M V , x   y   4  8  2  y  dy  
0 3 0 15
4 1 16
shell: V   2  4  x   x 2 dx   ,
0 8 3
41 1  1 128  8
M V , x    4  x 2   2  4  x   x 2 dx   ,  x , y    0, 
0 2
 8  8 15  5
2 40 2 28
d) washer: V    16   2  y   dy   , M V , x   y   16   2  y   dy  
2 2
0   3 0   3
2 40
shell: V   2  4  x  2  x  dx   ,
0 3
21 28  7
M V , x    2  x   2  4  x  2  x  dx   ,  x , y    4, 
0 2 3  10 
 2  1 2 2  2 4  1 2 
2
112
e) washer: V     x   x   dx    4   x   dx  ,
0
  8   2
  8   15
2  2  1 2 2  4   1 2 2  52
MV , y   x    x   x   dx   x   4   x   dx  
0
  8   2
  8   3

  112
2
shell: V   2  2  y  8  2  y    2  y  dy  ,
0 15
1
    52
2
MV , y   8  2  y    2  y   2  2  y  8  2  y    2  y  dy  ,
2 0 3

 x , y    , 2 
65
 28 
2
1 
3) a) S   2 x 1    e x  e  x   dx  3.9717 ,
1

0
2 
2
1 1 
   e x  e  x   2 x 1    e x  e  x   dx  5.0984 ,
1
M S ,x
0 2
 x , y    0,1.28
2 
2
1  1 
b) S   2   e x  e  x   1    e x  e  x   dx  8.8387 ,
1

0
2  2 
2
1  1 
M S , y   x  2   e x  e  x   1    e x  e  x   dx  5.0984 ,
1
 x , y    0.576,0 
0
2  2 
4
c) S   2 y 1   4  2 y  dy  94.570 ,
2
2

M S , y    4 y  y 2   2 y 1   4  2 y  dy  187.36 ,
4
 x , y   1.98, 0 
2
2


d) S   2 6   4 y  y 2  
4
1   4  2 y  dy  111.62
2
2

M S , x   y  2 6   4 y  y 2   
4
1   4  2 y  dy  380.06 ,  x , y    6, 3.40 
2
2
 2
 1  x2 3
1 
e) S     2 x 1     dx  6.9115
0  x1 3 
 
2
 1  x2 3 
M S , x   1  x 
1
23 32
 2 x 1   

 dx  0.69396 ,

 x , y    0, 0.100 
0
 x1 3 
2

 
 1  x2 3 
f) S  3   2 1  1  x 
1
23 32
1   dx  15.080
0  x1 3 
 
2

 
 1  x2 3 
M S , y     x  2 1  1  x 
1
23 32
1 

 dx  6.2175 ,

 x , y    0.412, 0 
0
 x1 3 
2
0  y   y 1  y 
4) S   2 y sin   1   sin    y cos    dy  419.85 m 2 ,
11
4  4 4  4 
2
0  y   y 1  y 
M S ,x   y  2 y sin   1   sin    y cos    dy  3011.9 m 2  m ,
11
4  4 4  4 
 x , y    0, 7.17  m

4  
2
1 3 
 0   4
     dx  64.148 cm ,
2 3
5) a) V   x x 1  1
  
4   2 1 3 2 
MV , y   x     x  x  1  1 dx  157.02 cm3  cm ,  x , y    2.45, 1 cm
0  4  
 
2
4  1   3 
b) S  8   2  x 2  x 3  1 1   2 x  x 2  dx  117.22 cm 2 ,
0
 4   4 
2
4  1   3 
M S , y  16   x  2  x 2  x 3  1 1   2 x  x 2  dx  271.47 cm 2  cm ,
0
 4   4 
 x , y    2.32, 1 cm

  5 1 
a
S   2 c x  x  a 
2
6) 1  c  x 3/2  3a x  a 2 x 1/2  dx
2
0
2 2 
2

  5 1   My 
a
M S , y   x  2 c x  x  a   x, y   
2
1  c  x 3/2  3a x  a 2 x 1/2  dx ,
2
,0 
0
2 2   S 
7) For all of the following, assume that the left flat base is on the y-axis.
2
1 L  R  1 1
a) conical: V   R 2 L , M V , y   x    R  x  dx   R 2 L2 , x  L ,
3 0
 L  12 4
 2
L  R  8 L  R  1
parabolic: V     R  2 x 2  dx   R 2 L , M V , y   x    R  2 x 2  dx   R 2 L2 ,
0
 L  15 0
 L  6
5
x L
16
L x2  2 L
2 x2  2
elliptical: V    R  1  2  dx   R L , M V , x   x   R  1  2  dx   R 2 L
2 2
0
 L  3 0
 L  3
3
x L
8
2
hemispherical: V   R 2  L  R    R 3 ,
3
MV , y  
R1

0 2
  
R 2  y 2  L  R  2 y R 2  y 2  L  R dy , x  y
M
V

2
L  R  R
b) conical: S   2  R  x  1    dx   R L2  R 2 ,
0
 L  L
2
L  R  R 1 1
M S,y   x  2  R  x  1    dx   RL L2  R 2 , x  L
0
 L  L 3 3
2
L  R   2R 
parabolic: S   2  R  2 x 2  1   2 x  dx ,
0
 L  L 
2
L  R   2R  M
M S,y   x  2  R  2 x 2  1   2 x  dx , x  y
0
 L  L  S
2
R x R2 x2
elliptical: S   2  R 1     1  2 2 dx ,
0
 L L  L  x2 
2
R x R2 x2 M
M S,y   x  2  R 1     1  2 2 dx , x  y
0
 L L L  x 
2
S

hemispherical: S  2 R  L  R   2 R 2  2 RL ,

 x   L  R
2

x  2 R   x   L  R   
L
M S,y   R  L  R  
2 2
2
1 dx   RL2 ,
R   x   L  R
L R 2 2

My 1
x = L
S 2
1  1   1 
8) a) Let c be depth at the centre. Then V   2 x  x 2  c  dx     c   0.2 m 3
0
 12   24 
0.2 1
 c   0.021995 m
 24
 1 1 2
1   1 2 
b) M V , x    x  c   2 x  x  c  dx  0.0028762 m  m ,
3
 x , y    0, 0.14381 m
2  12
0
  12 
 0.166 m above the flat bottom
b y2 b
9) a) S   2 r  y 1 2  a 2 r dy  2 r  b  a  ,
2 2
dy
a r  y2
y2
dy   2 ry dy   r  b2  a 2 
b b
M S , x   y  2 r 2  y 2 1 
a r y
2 2 a

1
y b  a  b) y is the midpoint between y = a and y = b.
2

10) b) S  2  0.5  m 2 , mbase  10  2  0.5  5 kg ,
2 2

2
0 y2 1 1
M S ,x   y  2 y 1  dy    , ybase,cm  ybase   m , i.e. 0.25 m below O.
0.5 0.5  y
2 2
8 4
2  0.52  y 2  dy , M sand,V , x   y  2  0.52  y 2  dy ,
c c
c) Vsand  
0.5 0.5

M sand,V , x
ysand,cm  ysand 
Vsand
mtower y tower,cm  mbase ybase,cm  msand ysand,cm
d) ycm  ,
mtower  mbase  msand
ycm  0  c  0.41000 m  msand  47.841 kg
dycm
e)  0  c  0.24305 m  msand  343.78 kg
dc
f) No, because the mass of water displaced by the entire base is
2 2
1000    0.5   261.80 kg  msand
3 