Cylinder/Shell Method – Rotate around a horizontal line

Before reading through this problem, I’d recommend checking out my lesson on finding volumes of rotation using the cylinder shell method. I’m not going to go into quite as much detail here as I did in that lesson. It might help you make more sense of what’s going on if your start there.

Other than that there isn’t much else to add so let’s jump into an example!

Example 1

Find the area of the solid created by rotating the area bounded between y= (x-1)^3-3, y=-x-2, and y=-2 about the line y=-1.

Just as before I’ll use the same 4 step process as in the cylinder method lesson.

1. Graph the 2-D functions

As I always say, I suggest starting any problem possible by drawing what is being described to you. Go ahead and start with graphing all of the functions described in the problem. I’ll do this using Desmos. You should end up with something like the graph below. I also went ahead and shaded the bounded region gray to make it a little easier to see (this was not done in Desmos).

y= (x-1)^3-3, y=-x-2, y=-2, and y=-1

2. Rotate the 2-D area around the given axis

Again, we want to visualize what the question is asking us to find. We will need to take the shaded region in the above graph and rotate it around the line y=-1. Doing this would create a 3-D figure whose volume we’ll need to find. But first let’s draw it.

To do this, imagine the 2-D gray region coming off the paper or screen and rotating around the axis of rotation. Doing this would give us something like the figure below.

Figure resulting from rotating the area around a horizontal.
Result of rotating the region about the line y=-1.

3. Setting up the integral

I’m not going to go into as much detail to explain where this integral comes from as I did in the cylinder method lesson, but if the following integral confuses you I’d recommend checking that lesson out by clicking on the above link.

Long story short, we want to imagine our 3-D figure is made up of several infinitely thin cylindrical shells. Adding up the volume of all of these shells would result in an integral like this: $$\int 2 \pi r h \ dr.$$

In order to help with coming up with each of these pieces, we need to relate them back to our figure and the functions that created it. In order to visualize this, let’s draw our figure with one of these infinitely thin shells that make up the entire figure. We can consider this one shell and how to represent these dimensions in terms of the given functions.

You can see one of these cylindrical shells represented in the drawing below with a labeled version of the cylinder draw in the upper-right hand corner.

3-D figure with a cylindrical shell
3-D figure with a sample cylindrical shell shown in green.

As with all cylinder shell method problems, we need to imagine integrating from the center of the cylinder out to the outer edge. Since our cylinder is laying horizontally, moving from its center to its edge moves up and down. This means we are moving in the y direction. Therefore, we need to integrate in the y direction and represent our integral only in terms of y (we shouldn’t have any x‘s).

So let’s think about each of the three pieces that make up our integral one at a time.

Finding r

The radius of this cylinder would simply be the distance between the center of the cylinder and the edge. You can see in the smaller version of the cylinder drawn off to the side that the radius is represented by the red line measuring between the points labeled (x_2, \ -1) and (x_2, \ y).

Since these two points have the same x value, we can find the distance between them by simply finding the distance between their y values. To do this we just need to take the larger value and subtract the smaller one from it. $$r=-1-y$$

Finding h

The height of a cylinder will always be measured as the distance between the two flat, parallel faces. Usually they would be the top and bottom, but since our cylinder is sideways, we need the distance between the left side and right side.

Looking at the smaller cylindrical shell off to the side in the drawing above, you can see the height of this cylinder is represented by the red line measuring the distance between the points (x_1, \ y) and (x_2, \ y).

Similar to what we did before, these two points have the same y value. As a result, the distance between them would be the same as the distance between their x values. So we just need to take the larger x value and subtract away the smaller one. $$h=x_2-x_1$$

But remember earlier I said we need everything just in terms of y?

So we need to think about how we can rewrite x_1 and x_2 in terms of y.

Finding \mathbf{x_1}

We know that x_1 lies on the function y=-x-2 so we know that the relationship between x_1 and y can be described in the same way $$y=-x_1-2.$$ If we rearrange this to solve for x_1 instead of y, we can use this to replace the \mathbf{x_1} in our equation for h. $$y=-x_1-2$$ $$y+x_1=-2$$ $$x_1=-y-2$$

We can use this to rewrite h but replace the x_1 with (-y-2) since we know they are equal. $$h= \ x_2- (-y-2)$$ Now we need to do the same thing with x_2.

Finding \mathbf{x_2}

We are going to apply the same idea here as in the previous section. We know that x_2 lies on the function y= (x-1)^3-3. Therefore, we can describe the relationship between x_2 and y as $$y= (x_2-1)^3-3.$$ Now we can solve this equation for x_2 and plug this into our equation for h. $$y \ = \ (x_2-1)^3-3$$ $$y+3 \ = \ (x_2-1)^3$$ $$\sqrt[3] {y+3} \ = \ x_2-1$$ $$\sqrt[3] {y+3} +1 \ = \ x_2$$ Now going back to our equation for h, this tells us $$h \ = \ \sqrt[3] {y+3} +1 – (-y-2).$$ And to simplify a bit: $$h \ = \ \sqrt[3] {y+3} +1 + y+2$$ $$h \ = \ \sqrt[3] {y+3} + y+3.$$ Now that we have h and r, we just need to find dr.

Finding dr

This is actually the simplest part to find. The dr represents the change in the cylinder’s radius as we go from each shell to the next. Since we move in the same direction of the radius as we integrate to find our volume, the change in r should be the same as the change in y between each step. Therefore, we can say that $$dr=dy.$$

Putting it all back into an integral

We already figured out that the volume of our figure can be found by using the integral $$\int 2 \pi rh \ dr.$$ And we just found these three pieces to be $$r=-1-y$$ $$h \ = \ \sqrt[3] {y+3} + y+3$$ $$dr=dy.$$ So we can just plug them into our integral. $$ \int 2 \pi \ ( -1-y ) \ \Big( \sqrt[3] {y+3} + y+3 \Big) \ dy$$

Now we need one last piece. We need to add bounds on the integrals.

Since we are integrating with respect to y, the bounds of our integrals need to be the range of y values that make up our original 2-D area. Looking back at our original graph, we can see that the original area bounded by the given functions spans over all of the y values between y=-2 and y=-3. Therefore, we know that the volume of our figure will be $$V \ = \int_{-3}^{-2} 2 \pi \ ( -1-y ) \ \Big( \sqrt[3] {y+3} + y+3 \Big) \ dy.$$

4. Solve the integral

Now all we need to do is solve the integral we just found and that will leave us with our volume. This is actually a pretty complicated integral as is it, so let’s start with simplifying it a bit. We’ll do this by pulling out the constant, distributing out through the parenthesis, and combining like terms.

$$V \ = \int_{-3}^{-2} 2 \pi \ ( -1-y ) \ \Big( \sqrt[3] {y+3} + y+3 \Big) \ dy$$ $$V \ = \ 2 \pi \int_{-3}^{-2} \ – \big(y+3 \big)^{\frac{1}{3}} – y \ – 3 -y \big(y+3 \big)^{\frac{1}{3}} – y^2 – 3y \ \ dy$$ $$V \ = \ 2 \pi \int_{-3}^{-2} \ – \big(y+3 \big)^{\frac{1}{3}} -y \big(y+3 \big)^{\frac{1}{3}} – y^2 – 4y -3 \ \ dy$$

Now that we have it in a form that is simplest to integrate we can go ahead and integrate this function one term at a time. I’m not going to show every step of how to do this, but if you’d like to work it out on your own, I’d suggest using u-substitution on the -(y+3)^{1/3} term and using integration by parts on the -y(y+3)^{1/3} term.

$$V \ = \ 2 \pi \Bigg[ – \frac{3}{14} \big( y+3 \big)^{\frac{4}{3}}\big( 2y-1 \big) – \frac{1}{3}y^3 – 2y^2 – 3y \Bigg]_{-3}^{-2}$$

Again, I’m not going to show every step of this. Instead I used Wolfram Alpha from here, but if you evaluate this expression from y=-3 to y=-2, you’ll see that $$V \ = \ 2 \pi \bigg(\frac{73}{42} \bigg)$$ $$V \ = \ \frac{73 \pi}{21}$$

Hopefully all of this helps you gain a bit of a better understanding of this method, but as always I’d love to hear your questions if you have any. Just email me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com and I’ll see if I can help provide a bit more clarification. You can also use the form below to subscribe to my email list and I’ll send you my bonus FREE calc 1 study guide! Just put in your name and email address and I’ll be sure to let you know when I post new content! Feel free to go check out my other lessons and solutions about integrals as well.


Rotating Volumes with the Cylinder/Shell Method

Similar to using the disk or washer method, we will use the cylinder method to find the volume of a solid. Specifically, it’s used when we rotate a function or region around an axis of rotation. In fact, most problems that require finding the volume of a solid of rotation can use the disk/washer method or the cylinder method. However, one will usually be significantly easier.

I’ll explain what I mean by this with an example.

Example 1

Find the volume of the solid resulting from rotating the area bound between y=x^2-2x+2, y=0, x=1, and x=2 about the y-axis.

Although we are using a different method here we will follow the same 4 step process as I did with the disk method and washer method.

1. Graph the 2-D functions

This is generally a good idea with any type of problem: draw out whatever is being described in the problem. This helps to visualize whats going on in the problem and what exactly we are trying to measure. It can also help us decide if the answer we end up with is actually a reasonable one.

I would recommend trying to graph all of the functions listed by hand, but I’ll do this using Desmos. You can see the graph of the functions below with the bounded region shaded gray.

Cylinder method volumes of rotation
y=x^2-2x+2, y=0, x=1, and x=2

2. Rotate the 2-D area around the given axis

Again, we want to visualize the 3-D figure whose volume we are trying to find. To do this we want to imagine rotating the described area around the axis of rotation.

I like to imagine the area actually coming off the page and rotating around our axis of rotation, which is the y-axis in this case. Doing this would create a cylinder-like, round figure. Try sketching this rotation and the resulting figure. It may be helpful in the next step to have this sketch.

If needed, Wolfram Alpha can always be used to create a visualization of this figure.

result of rotating the region around the y axis
Result of rotating the region about the y-axis.

3. Setting up the integral

This is the part where things start to get a bit different using the cylinder method than they were with the disk/washer method.

In order to make sense of the integral we need to set up here, let’s think about what we’re doing differently. With the disk/washer methods we were stacking many very thin disks on top of each other with the same thickness and varying radii to create our figure. This created a stack of cylinders whose volume we could find and add together.

The cylinder shell method is a bit different. Here we need to imagine just the outer shell of a cylinder that is very very very thin. We will stack many of these very thin shells inside of each other to create our figure. Each shell will have the same thickness, but all with different heights depending on where it is in the figure.

What we need to figure out is a formula for the volume of one of these shells, then the integral will be able to go through each shell and add up all of their volumes.

What would this look like?

Before we think about creating a function that we will need to integrate I want to take a moment to describe what one of these shells would look like. Imagine forming the outer shell of a cylinder with a piece of paper. All you would need to do is roll up the paper and it would create a cylinder shell. But what’s interesting about this is the cylinder shell came from a rectangle, or more accurately a very very thin rectangular prism. It might look something like this.

Since we are imagining finding the volume of an infinitely thin cylinder, these three figures would have the same volume. The fact that they’re infinitely thin means that the curvature won’t impact the volume of the shell. So to find the volume of the cylindrical shell, we can instead find the volume of a rectangular prism with the same dimensions. This is a much easier exercise to imagine since the volume of a rectangular prism is simply $$V= \ length \cdot width \cdot height.$$

But how does this relate to the cylinder?

What we need to think about now is how the dimensions of the rectangular prism translate to dimensions on the cylindrical shell. Looking back up to the drawing above, if you imagine the rectangle curling into a cylinder you can see the long side of the rectangle bends into the top and bottom of the cylinder. This would be the circumference of the cylinder.

In the above drawing we can also see that the shorter side of the rectangle lines up nicely with the height of the cylinder.

And lastly, the very very very thin thickness of the shell and the rectangular prism would clearly correspond with each other.

So as a result, the $$V= \ length \cdot width \cdot height$$ of the rectangular prism would be the same as $$V = circumference \cdot thickness \cdot height$$ for the cylindrical shell.

Putting it into an integral

Now that we know how to find the volume of each shell we need to come up with a way to put that into an integral. The reason for this is that the integral adds up the volume of all of the shells that make up the figure to find the total volume.

In order to do this, we will need to think about the formula for the volume in terms of measurments of the cylinders. We know the three pieces we need to find the volume of one of the shells are the circumference, thickness, and height of the cylinders. Typically when we describe a cylinder, we need two measurements to do this: height and radius. So we want to represent the circumference, thickness, and height in terms of height and radius.

First let’s think about the circumference. We know that the circumference of a circle is always going to be $$circumference=2 \pi r$$ where r is the radius.

The thickness of each shell is a bit strange. As we go from one shell to the next throughout the integral we want to think about what is changing. When we are doing this, we will always want to think about integrating throughout the radius. It’s as if we are starting at the center of the figure and integrating in the direction toward the edge of the figure. So when we go from one shell to the next we travel throughout the radius. Therefore, the thickness of each cylindrical shell with be the distance we travel between each shell. This will just be the change in radius between each shell. Therefore we’ll say the the thickness is $$thickness = dr.$$

Lastly, the height will still be described as the height. We don’t really need to do anything here.

Therefore, using these three conversions we know that the volume of the whole figure can be found with the following integral. $$\int 2 \pi r h \ dr$$

Relating it back to our figure

So we have a general outline to set up our integral, but now we need to figure out how our figure fits into these pieces. The easiest way to do this is draw it out with one of the cylindrical shells that makes up our 3-D figure.

cylindrical shell rotation

So remember earlier I said that when we use this method to find the volume, we are integrating in the direction of the radius of the cylinders. We can see in our drawing that if we start in the center of our cylinder and move toward the edge, we would be going in the x direction. Therefore, we need to think about how to represent our integral in terms of x so we can integrate with respect to x.

So we have 3 pieces of our integral that we need to put in terms of x: r, h, and dr.

Finding r

You can see in the drawing above I drew an example of one of the cylindrical shells within our figure. There is also a smaller version of this shell in the upper left hand corner which has a few points labeled which will lie on the various functions that created our bounded region.

We can see the radius of our cylinder would be the distance between its center and edge, which is the distance between the two points labeled (0, \ y) and (x, \ y). The x-coordinate of that first point will always be 0 because that point lies on the y-axis. And (x, y) is some point that lies on the function y=x^2-2x+2. Since these points have the same y value, the distance between them will just be the distance between their x values. So $$r=x-0$$ $$r=x.$$

Finding h

Looking at the labeled cylindrical shell in the drawing above, we can see that the height of the cylinder will be the distance between the points labeled (x, \ y) and (x, \ 0). Again, (x, \ y) is some point on the function y=x^2-2x+2. And the y-coordinate of that second point will always be 0 because it sits on the x-axis.

It is also important to notice that these two points will sit on the top and bottom edges of every single shell that makes up this figure. This will be true for the inner most shell, the outer most shell, and every shell between them.

Since these these two points have the same x value, the distance between them will simply be the distance between their y values. So $$h=y-0$$ $$h=y$$

But remember we need everything in terms of x, not y. So we need to think about how to represent this height using x instead. Since our y is just the y-coordinate of some point that lies on the function y=x^2-2x+2, we can replace the y with x^2-2x+2. So $$h=x^2-2x+2.$$

Finding dr

This is actually the simplest part to find. The dr represents the change in the cylinder’s radius as we go from each shell to the next. Since we move in the same direction of the radius as we integrate to find our volume, the change in r should be the same as the change in x between each step. Therefore, we can say that $$dr=dx.$$

Putting it all back into an integral

We know that the volume of our figure can be found by using the integral $$\int 2 \pi r h \ dr.$$ And we just found how to represent all of these pieces in terms of x by $$r=x$$ $$h=x^2-2x+2$$ $$dr=dx.$$ So we can substitute all of these pieces into the integral and get something in terms of x that will tell us exactly how to find the volume of our figure. $$V=\int 2 \pi x \big( x^2-2x+2 \big) \ dx$$

But there is actually one more thing we need to consider. Our integral needs bounds. Since we are integrating with respect to x we need to figure out all the x values we want to consider when finding our volume.

To do this we just need to look at the original 2-D region we had bounded by all of our functions. Looking back at our drawings we can see that the entire region goes from x=1 to x=2. Therefore, these will be our bounds, telling us that $$V=\int_1^2 2 \pi x \big( x^2-2x+2 \big) \ dx.$$

4. Solve the integral

Now that we got our integral set up, all we need to go is evaluate the integral and find the volume it represents.

Before doing that I will simplify things a bit by pulling out the constant 2 \pi and then simplifying the function by distributing.

$$V=\int_1^2 2 \pi x \big( x^2-2x+2 \big) \ dx$$ $$V=2 \pi \int_1^2 x^3-2x^2+2x \ dx$$ $$V=2 \pi \Bigg[ \frac{1}{4}x^4 – \frac{2}{3}x^3+ x^2 \Bigg]_1^2$$ $$V=2 \pi \Bigg[ \bigg( \frac{1}{4}(2)^4 – \frac{2}{3}(2)^3+ (2)^2 \bigg) \ – \ \bigg( \frac{1}{4}(1)^4 – \frac{2}{3}(1)^3+ (1)^2 \bigg) \Bigg]$$ $$V=2 \pi \Bigg[ \bigg( 4 – \frac{16}{3}+ 4 \bigg) \ – \ \bigg( \frac{1}{4} – \frac{2}{3} + 1 \bigg) \Bigg]$$ $$V=2 \pi \bigg[ \frac{8}{3} – \frac{7}{12} \bigg]$$ $$V=2 \pi \bigg[ \frac{25}{12} \bigg]$$ $$V= \frac{25 \pi}{6}$$

And that’s it! The volume of our 3-D figure is \frac{25 \pi}{6} cubic units.

I do quickly want to circle back to a comment I made a while ago. We could have found this volume using the washer method. However, we would have had to split it into two separate integrals to do so. The reason for this is that the inner radius of the washers on the lower half of the figure is formed by x=1. But the inner radius of the washers on the upper half of our figure is formed by y=x^2-2x+2. So we’d have to set up one integral for the lower half and another for the upper half, then add the resulting volumes to find the total volume of our figure.

Clearly using the cylindrical shell method is much easier in this case.

If you want more practice on finding volumes of rotation using the shell method, you can find another example here.

Hopefully all of this helps you gain a bit of a better understanding of this method, but as always I’d love to hear your questions if you have any. Just email me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com and I’ll see if I can help provide a bit more clarification. You can also use the form below to subscribe to my email list and I’ll send you my FREE calc 1 study guide! Just put in your name and email address and I’ll be sure to let you know when I post new content! Feel free to go check out my other lessons and solutions about integrals as well.


Washer Method – Rotate around a vertical line

Find the volume obtained by rotating the region bounded by y=\frac{1}{4} x^2, x=2, and y=0 about the y-axis.

To solve this problem, I’m going to use the same 4 step process as I did in my disk method lesson and my first washer method practice problem. There is one key difference this time around: here we are rotating the region around a vertical line. Previously, I have only shown examples of rotating around a horizontal line.

1. Graph the 2-D functions

As I did in the other examples mentioned above, the first thing we should always do is graph the given functions. This will help us visualize what we’re dealing with and will make it easier to come up with the function we’ll need to integrate later.

All I will do here is plug these functions into Desmos, but see if you can graph these without the help of a calculator. That a skill that may come in handy at some point.

washer method around y axis
y=\frac{1}{4} x^2, x=2, and y=0

2. Rotate the 2-D area around the given axis

This is another step that is mostly helpful for visualization. Visualizing each step required to create the 3-D figure we’re looking for will make things a lot easier when we come up with the function that we need to integrate.

Remember, the problem said that we will need to rotate the region trapped between these three functions around the y-axis. So imagine this 2-D region rotating off the page (or screen) and around the y-axis. Doing this would create a round 3-D figure. This is the figure whose volume we need to find.

I encourage you to imagine this happening on your page and try drawing a rough sketch of the resulting figure. I will do this using Wolfram Alpha.

3D rotation around y axis
Result of rotating the region about the y-axis.

3. Setting up the integral

This step is at the heart of these problems. All of the graphing and sketching is to help us visualize what is being described so we can correctly formulate our integral.

We could solve this problem using the cylinder method as well, but that’s for another lesson. For this example, we will proceed using the washer method. This is important to distinguish here because we need to imagine all of the washers that make up this 3-D figure. What we need to think about is a stack of very, very, very thin washers stacked one on top of the other, in the same shape as the figure shown a couple paragraphs ago.

You will notice that if we imagine this figure as a stack of washers, the washers would be stacked vertically, one on top of the other. This is different from the first washer method example I did, where the washers were all side by side.

This is an important difference because adding up the volume of all of these washers will require us to move vertically throughout this figure to get the next washer and add its volume to the total. As a result of this, we will be integrating with respect to y! Since we move in the y direction to get to the next washer, we need to integrate with respect to y. Therefore, when we create our integral, it will all need to be in terms of y rather than x.

How do we set the integral up with respect to y?

Take a look at the drawing below. You can see one of these infinitely thin washers drawn in the figure. Let’s take a minute to consider the dimensions of this particular washer. Remember, as we showed in the first washer method practice problem, the volume of a washer is given by V=\pi h(R^2-r^2) where r is the inner radius and R is the outer radius.

labeled rotation around y axis

The large washer in the middle of our graph is there to help you visualize where these washers would be if we were to stack them up to create this figure. Take a look at the smaller washer in the upper left section of our graph. This will be used to help us find the inner and outer radii of the washers.

Finding the inner radius

The inner radius of a washer will be the distance between the center of the washer and the inner edge. In the drawing above, this is shown in the smaller washer off to the side as the distance between the points labeled (0, \ y) and (x, \ y).

(0, \ y) is some point on the y-axis. The y will be different depending on which washer we’re looking at, but since it lies on the y-axis we know that the x-coordinate will always be 0.

(x, \ y) is some point that lies on the function y=\frac{1}{4}x^2. But remember, I said earlier that we need to integrate with respect to y because our washers are stacked vertically so we move in the y direction to add up all of their volumes. Therefore, we need everything just in terms of y without having any x‘s around. So we need to rewrite (x, \ y) just in terms of y. In order to do this we will need to think about how we can write x in terms of y.

Since we know that this point lies on the function y=\frac{1}{4}x^2 we can use this relationship to find x in terms of y. All we need to do is take that equation and solve for x. $$y=\frac{1}{4}x^2$$ $$4y=x^2$$ $$\pm \sqrt{4y}=x$$ Notice, in general when we take the square root of both sides of the equation we need the positive and negative square root. In this case, the positive square root is the right half of the parabola and the negative square root represents the left half. Since the right half of the parabola is the part that formed the region we’re looking at, we only need the positive square root. So, $$x=\sqrt{4y}.$$

Now that we know x=\sqrt{4y} for any (x, \ y) pair that lies on our function, we can use this to say that (x, \ y) can instead be written as (\sqrt{4y}, \ y). Therefore, to find the inner radius we need to find the distance between \mathbf{(0, \ y)} and \mathbf{(\sqrt{4y}, \ y)}. To find this distance we simply need to find the difference between their x-values because they will always have the same y-coordinate. So, $$r= \sqrt{4y} \ – 0$$ $$r= \sqrt{4y}.$$

Finding the outer radius

Finding the outer radius will be very similar to finding the inner radius. The only difference is that we now need to find the distance between the point in the center of the washer and the outer edge. This is shown in the labeled washer by the distance between the two points labeled (0, \ y) and (2, \ y).

We know that any point that lies on the line x=2 will have an x-coordinate of 2. No matter what the y-coordinate is, if it lies on \mathbf{x=2} we know the x-coordinate must be 2. This is the reason why the point on the outer edge of the washer is labeled (2, \ y). Although the y-coordinate changes as we move up the side of our figure, the x-coordinate stays equal to 2.

So we need to find the distance between the points (0, \ y) and (2, \ y). Clearly these two points will have the same y-coordinate. The y-coordinate changes depending on which washer we are looking at in our figure, but these two points will have the same y-coordinate when they are on the same washer. Since they have the same y-value, to find the distance between them, we just need to find the distance between their x-coordinates. Therefore, $$R=2-0$$ $$R=2.$$

Finding the height (or thickness)

In order to find the volume of a washer we will also need it’s height.

The height of our infinitely thin washers is actually quite simple. Just like when we integrate a 2-D function to find the area under the curve, our slices here are all the same width. We don’t have to worry about each washer, having a different height.

The height of each washer will just be how far we always move over before taking another slice. Since we are moving up in the y direction as we imagine the next slice, this can simply be our change in y between the slices. Change in y is always represented as dy. So we can simply say the height of each cylinder is $$h=dy.$$

Back to the integral

Like I said before, all the integral will do is go through all the y values that our figure covers and add up the volumes of all of the infinitely thin washers. In order for it to achieve this, we need to put a function for the volume of each washer that depends on y. We already know that the volume of a washer in general would be $$V = \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big).$$

This means that our integral might look something like this $$\int \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big).$$

But this doesn’t really have any meaning on its own. In order to give this meaning we need to represent this volume in terms of y and give the integral a range of y values to integrate over.

Remember we also found the inner radius, outer radius, and height of the washers that make up our figure to be $$r=\sqrt{4y},$$ $$R=2,$$ $$h=dy.$$

Putting all of this into an integral along with the fact that this figure goes across all y-values between 0 and 1, give us $$V= \int_0^1 \pi (dy) \bigg( (2)^2 – \Big(\sqrt{4y}\Big)^2 \bigg).$$

Of course, this looks a little strange. Let’s simplify this integral and rearrange the pieces a bit. $$V= \pi \int_0^1 4 – 4y \ dy$$

4. Solve the integral

Now we’ve gotten through the hard part. All we need to do now is evaluate the volume integral by finding the anti-derivative and evaluating the bounds. All we need in this case is the power rule for integration. $$V= \pi \int_0^1 4 – 4y \ dy$$ $$V= \pi \bigg[ 4y – 2y^2 \bigg]_0^1$$ $$V= \pi \bigg[ \Big( 4(1) – 2(1)^2 \Big) – \Big( 4(0) – 2(0)^2 \Big) \bigg]$$ $$V=\pi(4-2)$$ $$V=2 \pi$$

So the volume of this solid is 2 \pi cubic units! I hope that helps, but if you are still looking for some practice with the washer method go check out my first washer method problem. That one explains the rational behind some of the steps in a bit more detail. You should also check out my other lessons and problems about integrals.

If you still have any questions, comments, or suggestions I’d love to hear them. Email me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com or us the form below to submit your name and email and I’ll send you my calculus 1 study guide as a free gift!

Washer Method Practice Problem

Once you have the disk method down, the next step would be to find the volume of a solid using the washer method. The washer method for finding the volume of a solid is very similar to the disk method with one small added complexity.

You can think of the main difference between these two methods being that the washer method deals with a solid with a piece of it taken out. Exactly as you would expect from the name, a washer is just a disk with a hole taken out of its center. So let’s jump into an example and I’ll explain the difference as we go.

Example

Find the volume obtained by rotating the area bounded by y=x and y= \sqrt{x} about the line y=1.

Solution

Like I said, finding the volume of this solid is going to be very similar to finding the volume of a solid using the disk method. Therefore, I’m going to follow the same general process as I did when using the disk method.

1. Graph the 2-D functions

Just like before, I’ll do this using Wolfram Alpha. Below you can see the graph of y=x and y=\sqrt{x} and you can see the area that is bounded by these two functions.

finding the volume of a figure using the washer method

2. Rotate the 2-D area around the given axis

Now that we have graphed our functions in the 2-D space, we will need to rotate them about our axis of rotation to create a 3-D figure. This is very similar to rotating a single function when using the disk method. The only difference is that the resulting figure will be round figure with something missing out of its center.

Remember, we need to rotate this area between the two functions around the line y=1, which is above our functions this time. Again, with Wolfram Alpha, we can see what this figure would look like.

washer method rotation volume

3. Setting up the integral

This is where things get a little different as a result of using the washer method. We still want to think about taking infinitely thin cylinders from this figure and measuring their volumes.

But let’s think about what these infinitely thin cylinders look like.

Since our figure is a cone-like shape with a piece missing from the middle, our cylinders are also going to have a piece missing from the middle. This makes them look like washers, which is why we call it the washer method! Since the slices of our figure look like washers we can’t find their volume by just finding the volume of a cylinder. There will be something a little extra.

What’s different about a washer?

Let’s take a look at the washer below and consider how we might find its volume.

washer

Clearly this figure takes on the shape of a cylinder. If we knew its radius and its height, we could use the formula for the volume of a cylinder to find its volume. However, there is a piece missing.

If we think about the piece that is missing from the cylinder for a moment you can see that this hole also has a cylindrical shape. In other words, we are starting with a cylinder and taking out a smaller cylinder from the middle of it.

So let’s say the distance from the center of these cylinders to the outer edge of this figure is the large radius, R. And we will say that the distance from the center of this figure to the inner edge is the small radius, r. We can think of r as the radius of the small cylinder that was taken out of the large cylinder.

Clearly both of these cylinders would have the same height, which we will call h, because this washer has the same thickness everywhere. So we can label all of these, giving us something like this.

Then we could use the volume of a cylinder formula to say that the volume of the large cylinder before the middle is taken out is $$\pi R^2 h.$$ And we can also say that the volume of the middle piece that’s taken out is $$\pi r^2 h.$$ So if we started with the volume of the large cylinder and take away the volume of the small cylinder, that means the volume of the washer is $$V= \pi R^2 h \ – \ \pi r^2 h.$$

Then we can simplify this a bit by factoring out like terms to get $$V = \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big)$$

But what does this have to do with an integral?

Just like we did when we used the disk method, we will need to add up the volume of all of the washers. This is what the integral accomplishes. In order to write our volume as an integral, we first need to come up with the function we will integrate.

Consider the following drawing of the area described in this problem rotated around y=1 with one of the washer slices depicted.

washer method rotation

The green washer in the figure represents one of the infinitely thin washers that we are slicing the figure into. Since we are trying to make this integral represent the sum of all of these washers, we need to think about the volume of each washer in particular.

You can imagine if we were to look at a different washer to the left or right of this one, the inner and outer radius would be different. As we change the x value where the washer sits, both radii would need to change. The inner radius would always reach to the part of this figure resulting from rotating y=\sqrt{x} around y=1. And the outer radius would always reach out to the part of this figure resulting from rotating y=x around y=1.

We already figured out that the volume of a washer would be $$V = \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big).$$ But now we need to apply this to this specific washer in the drawing above.

Let’s look up at the green washer in the above drawing. In order to find its volume, we will need its inner radius, outer radius, and height (or thickness).

Finding the inner radius

The inner radius of this washer would be the distance from the center of the washer to the inner edge. In the drawing above, we can see that this would be the distance between the axis of rotation (the green line labeled y=1) and the the function which is closer to this axis (the red function labeled y=\sqrt{x}).

Off to the side of these functions you can see a closer look at this washer with three important points labeled. In this larger version the inner radius is the distance between the point (x, \ 1) and (x, \ y_1). We know that the center of our disk will always have a y-coordinate of 1 because we rotated our function around the line \mathbf{y=1}. And we will leave the x-coordinate as the variable x because we are trying to find the volume of any washer along this figure with all different x values, not just the one disk drawn above.

Let’s take a second to think about the other point I mentioned. This point is labeled (x, \ y_1). This is just meant to be any (x, y) combination that sits on our function \mathbf{y=\sqrt{x}}. This point will always have the same x-value as our other labeled point, so the distance between these two points will simply be the distance between their y-coordinates, which are y_1 and 1. To find the distance between these two values, we just need to do the larger value minus the smaller one. Looking at the drawing, you can see that y=1 is above y=\sqrt{x} over the entire domain of the area we care about. Therefore, the larger y value minus the smaller one, is $$1-y_1.$$

But we need this to be in terms of x. Remember we realized earlier that the inner radius of our washer will depend on x, so we want everything in terms of x. We know that our point (x, \ y_1) is some point that lies on the function y=\sqrt{x}. So we know \mathbf{y_1=\sqrt{x}}. Therefore, if the inner radius of our washer is 1-y_1, we can also say that the radius is 1-\sqrt{x}. So the inner radius of this washer will be $$r=1-\sqrt{x}.$$

We could plug in any x value into this to find the inner radius of the washer that corresponds with that specific x value. So when we integrate across a range of x values, we will be taking into account the inner radius of the washers with all of the x values in that range. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have a bit more work to do before we can do that.

Finding the outer radius

We will find the outer radius very similarly to how we found the inner radius. The outer radius of this washer would be the distance from the center of the washer to the outer edge. In the drawing above, we can see that this would be the distance between the axis of rotation (the green line labeled y=1) and the the function which is farther from this axis (the blue function labeled y=x).

Again, let’s take a look at the washer drawn off to the side of our figure. This time we are looking for the outer radius. The outer radius would be shown here as the distance between the points (x, \ 1) and (x, \ y_2).

Since these two points have the same x value, the distance between them will be the same as the distance between their y values. To find this we just need to take the larger one and subtract the smaller of the two. The point (x, \ 1) will always lie on y=1 and the point (x, \ y_2) will always lie on y=x. Since y=1 is above y=x between x=0 and x=1, we know that 1 will be larger than y_2. Therefore, the distance between these two points is $$1-y_2.$$

But again, we need this radius to be written in terms of x. We know that our point (x, \ y_2) is some point that lies on the function y=x. So we know \mathbf{y_2=x}. Therefore, if the outer radius of our washer is 1-y_2, we can also say that the radius is 1-x. So the outer radius of this washer will be $$R=1-x.$$

Finding the height (or thickness)

The height of our infinitely thin cylinders or washers is actually quite simple. Just like when we integrate a 2-D function to find the area under the curve, our slices here are all the same width. We don’t have to worry about each washer, or cylinder, having a different height.

The height of each cylinder will just be how far we always move over before taking another slice. Since we are moving over in the x direction as we imagine the next slice, this can simply be our change in x between the slices. Change in x is always represented as dx. So we can simply say the height of each cylinder is $$h=dx.$$

Back to the integral

Like I said before, all the integral will do is go through all the x values in our domain and add up the volumes of all of the infinitely thin washers. In order for it to achieve this, we need to put a function for the volume of each washer that depends on x. We already know that the volume of a washer in general would be $$V = \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big).$$

This means that our integral might look something like this $$\int \pi h \big( R^2 – r^2 \big).$$

But this doesn’t really have any meaning on its own. In order to give this meaning we need to represent this volume in terms of x and give the integral a domain of x values to integrate over.

Remember we also found the inner radius, outer radius, and height of the washers that make up our figure to be $$r=1-\sqrt{x},$$ $$R=1-x,$$ $$h=dx.$$

Putting all these into our integral, along with the fact that our figure takes on all x values between x=0 and x=1 tells us that the volume of this 3-D figure is $$V = \int_0^1 \pi (dx) \Big( \big( 1-x \big)^2 – \big( 1-\sqrt{x} \big)^2 \Big).$$

But we should rewrite this in a form that is more in line with how integrals are usually formatted. And we can also pull our constant \pi outside of the integral. $$V = \pi \int_0^1 \big( 1-x \big)^2 – \big( 1-\sqrt{x} \big)^2 \ dx$$

4. Solve the integral

We made it through the hard part! Now that we created our integral to represent the volume, we just need to evaluate the integral. Before we integrate this, let’s start with simplifying it.

In order to simplify this function that we need to integrate, the first step would be to F.O.I.L. out each portion. Remember (1-x)^2 is NOT (1^2-x^2). Instead we need to treat (1-x)^2 as if it were (1-x)(1-x).

$$V = \pi \int_0^1 \big( 1-x \big)^2 – \big( 1-\sqrt{x} \big)^2 \ dx$$ $$V = \pi \int_0^1 (1-x)(1-x) – \big(1-\sqrt{x})(1-\sqrt{x} \big) \ dx$$ $$V = \pi \int_0^1 \big(1-2x+x^2 \big) – \big(1-2\sqrt{x}+x \big) \ dx$$ $$V = \pi \int_0^1 1-2x+x^2 – 1+2\sqrt{x}-x \ dx$$ $$V = \pi \int_0^1 x^2 -3x +2\sqrt{x} \ dx$$ $$V = \pi \int_0^1 x^2 -3x +2x^{\frac{1}{2}} \ dx$$

Now we have a function that is fairly simple to integrate. All we need to do to integrate this is use the power rule.

$$V = \pi \Bigg[ \frac{1}{3}x^3 – \frac{3}{2}x^2 + \frac{4}{3}x^{\frac{3}{2}} \Bigg]_0^1$$ $$V = \pi \Bigg[ \bigg( \frac{1}{3}1^3 – \frac{3}{2}1^2 + \frac{4}{3}1^{\frac{3}{2}}\bigg) – \bigg( \frac{1}{3}0^3 – \frac{3}{2}0^2 + \frac{4}{3}0^{\frac{3}{2}} \bigg) \Bigg]$$ $$V = \pi \bigg( \frac{1}{3} – \frac{3}{2} + \frac{4}{3} \bigg)$$ $$V = \pi \bigg( \frac{2}{6} – \frac{9}{6} + \frac{8}{6} \bigg)$$ $$V = \frac{1}{6} \pi = \frac{\pi}{6}$$

So we know the volume of this solid is \frac{\pi}{6}! Hopefully this has helped you with the washer method, but if there’s still a topic you’d like to learn about take a look at some of my other lessons and problem solutions about integrals. You can also get some more practice with the washer method here. If you can’t find the topic or question you’re looking for just let me know by emailing me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com!

I also encourage you to join my email list! Just enter your name and email below and I’ll send you my calc 1 study guide as a FREE welcome gift!

Rotating Volumes with the Disk Method

Rotating functions around an axis to create a 3-D shape then finding its volume is one of the more common applications of integrals. This is commonly referred to as finding a volume using the disk method. It seems like a complicated type of problem, but if you think about what you are actually measuring it isn’t so bad.

Let’s think about a specific example. Imagine taking the function y=x^2 between x=0 and x=2 and rotating it around the x-axis then finding the volume of this solid using the disk method.

1. Graph the 2-D function

The first thing I would recommend doing with a problem like this is to graph the function that’s given to you. Here we are graphing y=x^2 within our given domain of 0 \leq x \leq 2. Using Wolfram Alpha we can see this graph below.

finding volumes with the disk method

2. Rotate the 2-D function around the given axis

Once you graph the function on the 2-D x-y-plane we need to imagine rotating it around the axis given in the problem. This will result in creating a 3-D figure whose volume we need to find.

In this case we need to rotate this portion of our function around the x-axis. Another way to say this is that we are rotating around the line y=0. Again, using Wolfram Alpha we can see what this figure would look like.

rotating function for disk method

I would always recommend drawing out the 2-D graph and 3-D rotation anytime you need to find the volume of a solid like this. It helps to visualize the solid whose volume you are trying to measure and it makes it much easier to make sure you are setting up your problem correctly.

3. Setting up the integral

As with any problem where we need to find a volume using the disk method, what we want to imagine here is having infinitely thin cylinders stacking up to create our 3-D figure. When we add up the volumes of all of these infinitely thin cylinders, get the volume of the entire figure. This is all the integral is doing.

disk method

You can see in this drawing our function has been rotated around the x-axis to create a round cone-like 3-D figure. The green cylinder in the figure represents one of the infinitely thin disks that we are slicing the figure into.

Since we are trying to make this integral represent the sum of all of these disks, we need to think about the volume of each disk in particular. Clearly each disk is a very thin cylinder. So in order to find their volumes, we should start with the volume of a cylinder, which is

$$V=\pi r^2 h.$$

Thinking back to our example of rotating y=x^2 around the x-axis, let’s determine the radius and height of our cylinders.

How do we find the radius?

Considering that each cylinder will be a different size, it seems clear that the radius of each cylinder will depend on which cylinder we’re considering. In fact, if you look at our drawing, you can see that the radius of each cylinder will simply depend on the x value where it’s sitting.


You can see in the drawing above that I drew a copy of the disk we are considering down below the function. Imagine we are trying to find the distance between the two points we labeled. The center point of our disk is labeled (x, 0). We know that the center of our disk will always have a y-coordinate of 0 because we rotated our function around the line \mathbf{y=0}. And we will leave the x-coordinate as the variable x because we are trying to find the volume of any disk along this figure with all different x values, not just the one disk drawn above.

Now consider the upper point. This point is labeled (x, y). This is just meant to be any (x, y) combination that sits on our function y=x^2. This point will always have the same x-value as our other labeled point, so the distance between these two points will simply be the distance between their y-coordinates, which are y and 0. To find the distance between these two values, we just need to do the larger value minus the smaller one, or y-0, which is just y.

But we need this to be in terms of x. Remember we realized earlier that the radius of our disk will depend on x, so we want everything in terms of x. We know that our point (x, y) we were looking at is some point that lies on our function. So we know \mathbf{y=x^2}. Therefore, if the radius of our disk is y, we can also say that the radius is x^2. So,

$$r=x^2.$$

How do we find the height?

The height of our infinitely thin cylinders is actually quite simple. Just like when we integrate a 2-D function to find the area under the curve, our slices here are all the same width. We don’t have to worry about each disk, or cylinder, having a different height.

The height of each cylinder will just be how far we always move over before taking another slice. Since we are moving over in the x direction as we imagine the next slice, this can simply be our change in x between the slices. Change in x is always represented as dx. So we can simply say the height of each cylinder is

$$h=dx.$$

If we were instead rotating our function around a vertical line (like x=0) the height of our disks would be dy. This is only if we are using the disk method and would not necessarily be the case when using the shell method.

Back to the integral

Now we got our height and radius of each disk we get from slicing this figure. Putting this together, we can say that the volume of a single disk can be represented as

$$V=\pi \big( x^2 \big)^2dx.$$

But this of course is just one disk. We need to add up the volume of all of the disks to get the volume of the full figure. This is exactly what the integral accomplishes. Before doing this, remember we are only rotating this function between x=0 and x=2. So these will be the bounds of our integral. Therefore, the volume of our entire figure can be found with the following integral.

$$\int_0^2 \pi \big( x^2 \big)^2dx$$

4. Solve the integral

We made it through the hard part! Now all we need to do is solve this integral and we will have the volume of our figure. First let’s simplify this integral a little, then we can integrate using the power rule and evaluate at the given bounds.

$$\int_0^2 \pi \big( x^2 \big)^2dx$$

$$\pi \int_0^2 x^4 dx$$

$$\pi \Bigg[ \frac{1}{5} x^5 \Bigg]^2_0$$

$$\frac{\pi}{5} \Big[ (2)^5 – (0)^5 \Big]$$

$$\frac{\pi}{5} \Big[ 32 \Big]$$

$$\frac{32 \pi}{5}$$

So we found that the volume of the solid is \frac{32 \pi}{5}! Hopefully this has helped you with the disk method, but if there’s still a topic you’d like to learn about take a look at some of my other lessons and problem solutions about integrals. Once you know and understand the disk method, another good application of integrals to check out would be the washer method. If you can’t find the topic or question you’re looking for just let me know by emailing me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com!

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RELATED RATES – Sphere Volume Problem

The radius of a sphere is increasing at a rate of 4 \frac{mm}{s}. How fast is the volume increasing when the diameter is 80 mm?

If you’d prefer a video over writing, check this out.

This question states pretty clearly that we will be working with a sphere here. Since it gives information about how it is changing and asks us to find how quickly another value is changing, we know it’s a related rates problem.

As with all of the other related rates problems I’ve worked through, we are going to be following the same four step process. I will go through them one step at a time, but you can also find where I introduce the steps here.

1. Draw a sketch

The first thing we need to do is draw a sketch of the scene being described. Obviously we are dealing with a sphere, but we are really only told two things:

  • how quickly the radius is changing, and
  • what the diameter is at the specific moment we’re concerned with.

Since that’s all we know, it will be pretty simple to put that into a drawing. It would look something like this:

related rates sphere volume

So we have a sphere whose radius is increasing at a rate of 4 \frac{mm}{s} and we need to consider the moment when its diameter is 80 mm.

2. Come up with your equation

As with any related rates problem, we need to create our equation once we have created our drawing. To do this we need to consider the information we have been given and how it relates to the piece of information we’re looking for.

What are we looking for?

The question asks us to find how fast the volume is increasing when the diameter is 80 mm. Asking about how fast something is changing refers to its rate of change. Therefore, we can tell that this question is asking us about the rate of change of the volume.

Since we will later be taking the derivative of the equation we are currently building, we only need to make sure to include the volume. Once we take the derivative of the equation, this will introduce the rate of change of the volume.

What do we know about?

This question didn’t provide a lot of information and it’s fairly straight forward.

  • Rate of change of the radius.
  • The diameter of the figure at this moment.

Putting it into an equation

Up to this point we know that we need to include the sphere’s volume in this equation. We have also figured out that we know some information about the diameter, which can easily be used to find the radius. And we also know about the rate of change of the radius. So we basically know everything about the radius that we might need.

What is the first equation or formula you think of that relates the volume of a sphere to its radius?

I think a good place to start is with the formula for the volume of a sphere.

$$V=\frac{4}{3} \pi r^3$$

We can see that this equation only contains V (volume) and r (radius). As a result, I’d say this is as good of a place to start as any. Let’s proceed with this equation.

3. Implicit differentiation

Now that we have come up with our equation, we need to take its derivative with respect to time. This will allow us to introduce and work with the rates of change of our measurements.

Since we will be taking the derivative with respect to time, we will need to treat V and r as functions of time rather than variables. In order to do this we will need to use the chain rule. So, taking the derivative of our equation gives us:

$$\frac{d}{dt} \big[ V \big] = \frac{d}{dt} \bigg[ \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3 \bigg]$$

$$\frac{dV}{dt} = \frac{4}{3} \pi \cdot 3r^2 \cdot \frac{dr}{dt}$$

$$\frac{dV}{dt} = 4 \pi r^2 \frac{dr}{dt}.$$

4. Solve for the desired rate of change

Finally, all we need to do now is solve for the rate of change the question is asking us to find. The problem asked us to find how fast the volume is changing at this moment. This is exactly what \frac{dV}{dt} represents. Since this is already isolated, all we need to do is plug in the other values we know about.

The other values that are needed are r and \frac{dr}{dt}, which represent the radius and its rate of change respectively.

The radius of our figure wasn’t given directly, but we do know that its diameter is 80 mm at this instant. Since the radius of a sphere is always half of the diameter, this tells us that the radius is 40 mm, or

$$r=40.$$

We were given that the figure’s radius is increasing at a rate of 4 \frac{mm}{s}. Therefore, we know

$$\frac{dr}{dt} = 4.$$

Plugging it all in

Now we simply need to plug these values into the differentiated equation we found in step three.

$$\frac{dV}{dt} = 4 \pi r^2 \frac{dr}{dt}$$

$$\frac{dV}{dt} = 4 \pi (40)^2 (4)$$

$$\frac{dV}{dt} = 25,600 \pi$$

$$\frac{dV}{dt} \approx 80,424.772$$

So this tells us that the volume of the sphere is increasing at a rate of 25,600\mathbf{\pi \ \frac{mm^3}{s}}, or about 80,424.772 \mathbf{\frac{mm^3}{s}} when its diameter is 80 mm.

If you’re still having some trouble with related rates problems or just want some more practice you should check out my related rates lesson. At the bottom of this lesson there is a list of related rates practice problems that I have posted a solution of. I also have several other lessons and problems on the derivatives page you can check out. If you can’t find the topic or question you’re looking for just let me know by emailing me at jakesmathlessons@gmail.com!

I also encourage you to join my email list! Just enter your name and email below and I’ll send you a copy of my calculus 1 study guide to help you get through your homework faster and the exams with better scores!