Unit Disk Average Distance

Calculus Level 4

Consider a unit disk centered on the origin in the x y xy plane. What is the average distance from a point on the unit disk to the point ( 1 , 0 ) \left(1,0\right) ?

Inspiration


The answer is 1.131.

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1 solution

Patrick Corn
Jun 21, 2019

It's convenient to do distances from the origin instead, so reflect everything across the line x = 1 / 2 x=1/2 to get the following problem: what is the average distance from a point on the disk inside ( x 1 ) 2 + y 2 = 1 (x-1)^2+y^2 = 1 to the origin?

Restrict to the upper half disk, which is ok by symmetry. In polar coordinates, the equation of the boundary circle is x 2 2 x + 1 + y 2 = 1 x 2 + y 2 = 2 x r 2 = 2 r cos θ r = 2 cos θ \begin{aligned} x^2-2x+1+y^2 &= 1 \\ x^2+y^2 &=2x \\ r^2 &= 2r\cos \theta \\ r &= 2\cos \theta \end{aligned}

The distance to the origin is just r , r, so the appropriate integral is 2 π 0 π / 2 0 2 cos θ r r d r d θ = 2 π 0 π / 2 r 3 3 0 2 cos θ d θ = 16 3 π 0 π / 2 cos 3 θ d θ = 16 3 π ( sin θ 1 3 sin 3 θ ) 0 π / 2 = 32 9 π 1.131 . \begin{aligned} \frac2{\pi} \int_0^{\pi/2} \int_0^{2\cos \theta} r \cdot r \, dr \, d\theta &= \frac2{\pi} \int_0^{\pi/2} \frac{r^3}3 \Big|_0^{2\cos\theta} \, d\theta \\ &= \frac{16}{3\pi} \int_0^{\pi/2} \cos^3\theta \, d\theta \\ &= \frac{16}{3\pi} \left( \sin \theta - \frac13 \sin^3 \theta \right)\Big|_0^{\pi/2} \\ &= \frac{32}{9\pi} \approx \fbox{1.131}. \end{aligned}

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