When three cylinders intersect

Calculus Level 3

Find the volume of the solid of intersection of three cylinders defined by the following equations:

x 2 + z 2 = 1 x^{2}+z^{2}=1 ;
y 2 + z 2 = 1 y^{2}+z^{2}=1 ;
x 2 + y 2 = 1 x^{2}+y^{2}=1 .


Problem Source: Calculus(10e) by Ron Larson.
16 3 2 16-3\sqrt{2} 16 7 2 16-7\sqrt{2} 16 5 3 16-5\sqrt{3} 8 ( 2 2 ) 8(2-\sqrt{2})

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1 solution

Hana Wehbi
Jun 6, 2016

The intersection of the three cylinders form eight sections, four above the x y xy plane and four below the x y xy plane. Finding the volume of one section gives 1 8 \frac{1}{8} of the answer. Therefore, I am going to calculate the volume of one section where z > 0 z>0 and multiply the answer by 8. I am only going to consider the cylinder x 2 + z 2 = 1 x^{2}+z^{2}=1 ; thus, the equation we need is z = 1 x 2 z=\sqrt{1-x^{2}} . Using Cylindrical coordinates, let x = r c o s ( θ ) x=rcos(\theta) , where the radius goes from 0 t o 1 0 \ to\ 1 and the angle θ \theta from π 4 \frac{-\pi}{4} to π 4 \frac{\pi}{4} . then the volume is defined by:

8 8 π 4 π 4 \large\int_{\frac{-\pi}{4}}^{\frac{\pi}{4}} 0 1 \large\int_{0}^{1} 1 r 2 c o s 2 ( θ ) \sqrt{1-r^{2}cos^{2}(\theta)} r d r d θ rdrd\theta =

8 3 \frac{8}{3} π 4 π 4 \large\int_{\frac{-\pi}{4}}^{\frac{\pi}{4}} 1 s i n ( θ ) 3 c o s 2 ( θ ) d θ 1-\frac{|sin(\theta)^{3}|}{cos^{2}(\theta)}d\theta =

16 3 \frac{16}{3} 0 π 4 \large\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{4}} 1 s i n ( θ ) 3 c o s 2 ( θ ) d θ 1-\frac{sin(\theta)^{3}}{cos^{2}(\theta)}d\theta =

= 16 3 \frac{16}{3} [ t a n ( θ ) c o s ( θ ) 1 c o s ( θ ) ] 0 π 4 \large[ tan(\theta)-cos(\theta)-\frac{1}{cos(\theta)}]_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{4}} = 16 8 2 16 - 8\sqrt{2} = 8 ( 2 2 ) \boxed{8(2- \sqrt{2})}

Nice one. Try this . :)

Abhay Tiwari - 5 years ago

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Nice problem too.

Hana Wehbi - 5 years ago

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