Learning Objectives
- Use double integrals to calculate the volume of a region between two surfaces or the area of a plane region.
We can use double integrals over general regions to compute volumes, areas, and average values. The methods are the same as those in Double Integrals over Rectangular Regions, but without the restriction to a rectangular region, we can now solve a wider variety of problems.
Example: finding the volume of a tetrahedron
Find the volume of the solid bounded by the planes [latex]x = 0[/latex], [latex]y = 0, \ z = 0[/latex], and [latex]2x+3y+z=6[/latex].
try it
Find the volume of the solid bounded above by [latex]f(x, y)=10-2x+y[/latex] over the region enclosed by the curves [latex]y=0[/latex] and [latex]{y} = {e^x}[/latex], where [latex]x[/latex] is in the interval [latex][0,1][/latex].
Finding the area of a rectangular region is easy, but finding the area of a nonrectangular region is not so easy. As we have seen, we can use double integrals to find a rectangular area. As a matter of fact, this comes in very handy for finding the area of a general nonrectangular region, as stated in the next definition.
definition
The area of a plane-bounded region [latex]D[/latex] is defined as the double integral [latex]\underset{D}{\displaystyle\iint}{1dA}[/latex].
We have already seen how to find areas in terms of single integration. Here we are seeing another way of finding areas by using double integrals, which can be very useful, as we will see in the later sections of this chapter.
Example: finding the area of a region
Find the area of the region bounded below by the curve [latex]y=x^{2}[/latex] and above by the line [latex]y=2x[/latex] in the first quadrant (Figure 2).
try it
Find the area of a region bounded above by the curve [latex]y=x^{3}[/latex] and below by [latex]y=0[/latex] over the interval [latex][0,3][/latex].
Watch the following video to see the worked solution to the above Try It
We can also use a double integral to find the average value of a function over a general region. First, recall how we find the average value of a function using single-variable calculus.
Recall: Average Value of a Function (Single-variable version)
If [latex]f(x)[/latex] is continuous on [latex][a,b][/latex], then the average value of [latex]f(x)[/latex] on [latex][a,b][/latex] is
[latex]f_{ave}=\frac{1}{b-a} \int_a^b f(x) dx[/latex]
The following definition is a direct extension of the formula above.
definition
If [latex]f(x, y)[/latex] is integrable over a plane-bounded region [latex]D[/latex] with positive area [latex]A(D)[/latex] then the average value of the function is
[latex]\large{{f_{ave}} = {\frac{1}{A(D)}}\underset{D}{\displaystyle\iint}{f(x,y)}{dA}}[/latex]
Note that the area is [latex]{A(D)}=\underset{D}{\displaystyle\iint}{1dA}[/latex].
Example: finding an average value
Find the average value of the function [latex]f(x, y)=7xy^{2}[/latex] on the region bounded by the line [latex]x=y[/latex] and the curve [latex]x=\sqrt{y}[/latex] (Figure 3).
try it
Find the average value of the function [latex]f(x, y)=xy[/latex] over the triangle with vertices [latex](0, 0)[/latex], [latex](1, 0)[/latex], and [latex](1, 3)[/latex].
Candela Citations
- CP 5.13. Authored by: Ryan Melton. License: CC BY: Attribution
- Calculus Volume 3. Authored by: Gilbert Strang, Edwin (Jed) Herman. Provided by: OpenStax. Located at: https://openstax.org/books/calculus-volume-3/pages/1-introduction. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. License Terms: Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/calculus-volume-3/pages/1-introduction