One Each Day Till They Go Away (Part 3)

Calculus Level 5

Consider two surfaces: a sphere and a paraboloid:

x 2 + y 2 + z 2 = 4 ( x 1 ) 2 + y 2 = z x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 4 \\ (x-1)^2 + y^2 = z

Let closed curve C C be the intersection between the two surfaces. There is a vector field throughout all space:

E = ( E x , E y , E z ) = ( z , x , y ) \vec{E} = (E_x, E_y, E_z) = (z, x, y)

Determine the following quantity:

C E d 2 π \Big| \oint_C \vec{E} \cdot \vec{d \ell} \Big| - 2 \pi


The answer is 0.104.

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1 solution

Karan Chatrath
Jun 6, 2021

Parameterising the paraboloid:

x = 1 + r cos t x = 1+ r\cos{t} y = r sin t y = r\sin{t} z = r 2 z = r^2

Plugging this parameterization into the equation of the sphere leads to the equation (after simplifying):

r 4 + r 2 2 r cos t 3 = 0 r^4 + r^2 -2r \cos{t} -3=0

This is a 4th degree equation in r r which is to be numerically solved for each value of t t where 0 t 2 π 0 \le t \le 2 \pi . Finally, the parameterised curve is:

R ( t ) = ( 1 + r cos t ) i ^ + r sin t j ^ + r 2 k ^ \vec{R}(t) = ( 1+ r\cos{t}) \ \hat{i} + r\sin{t} \ \hat{j} + r^2 \ \hat{k}

Where r r is the real root of the 4th degree polynomial. Now there may be more than one real root of this equation, so finding that is something I am yet to figure out. To be very honest, I got lucky in finding the answer. The simulation code is attached below. I look forward to receiving feedback on this solution, as I am sure there is a better way of solving this.

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clear all
clc

% Resolving the angle in space:
dt  = 1e-4;
t   = 0:dt:2*pi;

% Computing r(t) by solving the 4th degree polynomial:
for k = 1:length(t)

Roots    = roots([1,0,1,-2*cos(t(k)),-3]);

for i = 1:4

    if imag(Roots(i))==0 
        rd = abs(Roots(i));
        if abs((rd*cos(t(k)) + 1)^2+ (rd*sin(t(k)))^2 + rd^4 - 4) < 1e-3
            r(k) = rd;
        end
    end

end

end

% Parameterised curve of intersection:
x    = r.*cos(t) + 1;
y    = r.*sin(t);
z    = r.^2;

% Derivatives wrt t of the parameterised curve components (Finite differences)
for k = 1:length(t)-1

    dx(k)  = (x(k+1)-x(k))/dt;
    dy(k)  = (y(k+1)-y(k))/dt;
    dz(k)  = (z(k+1)-z(k))/dt;

end

% Integral initialisation:
I = 0;

for k = 1:length(t)-1

    % Electric field:
    E  = [z(k);x(k);y(k)];

    % Line element vector:
    dR = [dx(k);dy(k);dz(k)]*dt;

    % Integrand:
    dI = E'*dR;

    % Numerical integration:
    I  = I + dI;
end

ANSWER = abs(I) - 2*pi
% ANSWER = 0.104

Nice job actually computing the line integral directly. My intent was to essentially force people to use Stoke's theorem and integrate the curl of the vector field over the portion of the sphere that lies above the paraboloid. In many of my problems, the boundary curve is easier to think about than the surface. I wanted to post one where the surface is easier to think about than the boundary curve.

Steven Chase - 5 days, 16 hours ago

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Ah, nice problem intent! Stokes' theorem would have been a better way to go.

Karan Chatrath - 5 days, 16 hours ago

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