Cube Sphere Intersection

Calculus Level pending

There is a cube of side length 2 2 with its center on the origin and its faces aligned with the standard coordinate axes.

There is a sphere of radius 2 2 with its center at ( x , y , z ) = ( 3 2 , 1 , 1 2 ) (x,y,z) = \Big(\frac{3}{2}, 1, \frac{1}{2} \Big) .

What percentage of the sphere's volume resides within the cube?


The answer is 10.6.

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1 solution

Otto Bretscher
Dec 18, 2018

I will rearrange things a bit to make it easier to "wrap my head around" this problem. Let's place the center of the sphere at ( 0 , 0 , 0 ) (0,0,0) and the center of the cube at ( 0.5 , 1.5 , 1 ) (0.5,1.5,1) (I'm permuting the coordinates). Now we seek the volume of the portion of the sphere with 1.5 x 0.5 , y 0.5 1.5 \geq x \geq -0.5, y \geq 0.5 and z 0 z \geq 0 , which is simply the double integral 0.5 1.5 0.5 4 x 2 4 x 2 y 2 d y d x 3.551 \int_{-0.5}^{1.5}\int_{0.5}^{\sqrt{4-x^2}}\sqrt{4-x^2-y^2}\ dy\ dx \approx 3.551 . With the volume of the sphere being 32 π 3 33.51 \frac{32\pi}{3}\approx 33.51 , the required percentage comes out to be about 10.6 % \boxed{10.6}\% .

This is a lovely problem indeed: Not hard at all once one understands what is going on. Thank you for sharing!

Glad you liked it, and thanks for the solution. For your follow-up problem, I had the right number for the surface area of the sphere within the cube. But I got the problem wrong because I thought I was supposed to enter the sum of the area of the sphere within the cube and the area of the cube within the sphere.

Steven Chase - 2 years, 5 months ago

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Thank you for letting me know! I started to worry that I had messed up my computation once again. Do you think I could phrase the follow-up problem more clearly?

Otto Bretscher - 2 years, 5 months ago

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I think I would have understood it properly if it had asked for "the surface area of the portion of the sphere which resides within the cube". Admittedly, I'm not very familiar with mathematical terminology of that sort, so your description may actually be fine.

Steven Chase - 2 years, 5 months ago

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@Steven Chase Mathematically, my description should be fine: I define the sphere as a surface and the cube as a solid region. In an attempt to avoid misunderstandings by others, I will add your language to the problem. Thank you!

Otto Bretscher - 2 years, 5 months ago

I also want to give you some advance notice, Steven, that now that the semester is over I will spend much less time on Brilliant. I will enjoy an extended vacation in the Caribbean during most of the month of January, often away from Internet access. I'm afraid I will miss most of your delightful problems...

Otto Bretscher - 2 years, 5 months ago

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Oh, nice! That sounds like it will be a good time. I'm sure there will be many problems waiting when you get back.

Steven Chase - 2 years, 5 months ago

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