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Solid of Revolution

IB Mathematic HL

International Baccalaureate Program

2070

October 31, 2016

Introduction:

Geometry is one of the areas of math that I feel passionate about, thereby I am inspired to

do my Internal Assessment in this area. I found that ellipsoid is an interesting geometric shape. It

is not as perfectly round as a sphere, and it has two or three distinct radii, which peaks my

attention and interest. I have learned many geometric shapes, however, ellipse and ellipsoid are

the two I had very little knowledge about. We see ellipsoid in our daily lives, such as potatoes,

watermelons and stones. In fact, our Earth is an ellipsoid as well. Besides finding out the volume

of an ellipsoid, I wondered if we can use volume of revolution to find the volume of other shapes

as well. Therefore, it inspires me to do this paper on finding the volume of an ellipsoid and the

volume under a curve by using the disk method and the cylinder method. An ellipsoid is an

ellipse in 3D. It has three axials, and three semi-axes. There are two kinds of ellipsoid. One has

three distinct semi-axes, and the other one has a pair of equivalent semi-axes, and one distinct

semi-axes. I am going to explore ellipsoids with a pair of equivalent and one distinct semi-axes.

I have never heard or learnt about the volume of revolution before I did this Internal

Assessment. My math teacher mentioned this process, which brought my interest to investigate

this topic. Solid of revolution, it is also called the volume of revolution, which includes the disk

method and cylinder method. It is a solid figure that can be constructed by rotating a plane line

around an axis, which creates a solid in a 3D shape. Essentially, allowing us to calculate the

volume of a geometric shape in 3D between two points in a curve using integration. Integration

is something that we learned early in grade 11, however, being able to apply this knowledge to

the volume of revolution is very interesting, showing that areas of math are connected. Solid of

revolution allows us to find volumes of many irregular geometric shape, which made me curious
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how do I find the volume of any irregular geometric shapes, such as a Torricelli Trumpet, a ring

and etc.

Investigation:

To find the volume of an ellipsoid in 3D, first of all, is to find the equation of an ellipse

corresponding to the ellipsoid. Figure 1 is an example of an ellipse.

Figure 1

Considering each square is 1 cm X 1 cm, the ellipse shown above has a 4 cm of major axis and 2

cm of minor axis. A major axis is the longest diameter in an ellipsoid, and a minor axis is the

shortest diameter in an ellipsoid. The general form of the equation of an ellipse is

(𝑥−ℎ)² (𝑦−𝑘)²
+ = 1, where (h, k) is the point of the center of the ellipse, ɑ is the semi-major axis,
𝑎² 𝑏²

which is half of the length of a major axis, and b is the minor axis, which is half of the length of
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a minor axis. In this case, the center of the ellipse is (0, 0), therefore h and k are 0, ɑ is 4, and b is

2, which means that the equation for this ellipse is:

𝑥² 𝑦²
+ 2² = 1
4²

Simplifying this equation into:

𝑥 2 + 4𝑦 2 = 16

𝑥²
Then putting y by itself on one side of the equation, which is 𝑦 = ±√4 − 4

𝑥²
𝑦 = +√4 − is the equation for the top half of the ellipse on the graph, cut by the x axis.
4

𝑥²
𝑦 = −√4 − is the equation for the bottom half of the ellipse on the graph, cut by the x axis.
4

If we were to find the area under the curve, which is the top half of the ellipse with the

𝑥²
equation 𝑦 = +√4 − 4 . Imagine cutting this half sized ellipse into very tiny rectangular strips,

and adding their areas together, which it would be the area of the half sized ellipse. Every tiny

rectangle has a height of y, and width of dx, as shown in Figure 2. Then, we rotate the curve for

360 degrees around the x axis, as Figure 2 shown.

Figure 2
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It would not matter which half of the ellipse we chose to rotate, both of the curves will form the

same ellipsoid after rotating around the x axis. After rotating the curve for 360 degrees, as Figure

3 shown, an ellipsoid is formed. Two semi-axes have the same length of 2cm, and the third semi-

axes has a length of 4cm. The rectangle that is described above, is being rotated around the x axis

for 360 degrees as well, forming a disk, as Figure 4 shown.

Figure 3 Figure 4

The same idea of finding the area of an ellipse, we can sum up the volume of all of the tiny disks

to find the volume of the ellipsoid. If we magnified one of the disks, as shown in Figure 4, it is a

side way view of a cylinder. The formula of finding the volume of a disk is base area times the

height. In this case, the radius of a disk is y, which is determined by the equation, 𝑦 =

√4 − 𝑥², and its width is dx. Therefore, the base area of a disk, which is the same as finding the
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base area of a circle, is 𝜋y². To find the volume, we need to multiply 𝜋y² and dx together, which

𝑥²
then we get 𝜋y²dx. Then, substitute the equation 𝑦 = √4 − into 𝜋y²dx, which equals to
4
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2
𝑥²
𝜋 (√4 − 4 ) dx. The last step is to add up the volume of each continuous slice of disks in the

ellipsoid to find the volume of the ellipse, which is the purpose of integral. The general form of

𝑏
integral is∫𝑎 𝑓(𝑥) 𝑑𝑥 .

The boundary of area of the volume is between x=-4 and x=4, and f(x) is the equation for the

𝑥²
curve that is being rotated, which is √4 − 4 therefore, the volume of the ellipsoid is equal to

2
4 𝑥²
∫−4 𝜋 (√4 − 4 ) 𝑑𝑥 .

We can take 𝜋 to the front of the expression, because it is a constant, it will not affect the

calculation:

4
𝑥²
= 𝜋∫ 4− 𝑑𝑥
−4 4

𝑥³ 4
= 𝜋 [4𝑥 − 12] −4 𝑑𝑥

43 (−4)³
=𝜋 {4(4) − 12 − [4(−4) − ]}
12

64 64
=𝜋 (16 − 12 + 16 − 12)

64
= 3 π cm³

64
In conclusion, I have found the volume of the ellipsoid to be 𝜋 cm³.
3
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If we were using the volume formula of an ellipsoid to solve the problem, which is known as
4 4 64
V= 3 𝜋𝑎𝑏𝑐, we would get V=3 𝜋(2)(2)(4) = 3 π cm³, which is the same result that I found using

the disk method.

We looked at the scenario where the ellipse is rotated around the x-axis. Next, we will look at a

scenario where ellipse is rotated around y-axis, as Figure 5 shown. The semi-major axis and the

semi-minor axis are the same as the first scenario, which is 4cm and 2cm respectively. Therefore,

𝑥² 𝑦²
the equation for this ellipse is + 4² = 1. We can simplify the equation to 4𝑥² + 𝑦² = 16.
2²

Because the ellipse is rotated around the y-axis, therefore, its height and radius will be in term of

y. It also means that we need to rearrange our equation to express in term of y, which it would be

𝑦²
𝑥 = ±√4 − . As in the first scenario mentioned, it does not matter which equation we use to
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rotate around. Imagine that there are disks in the ellipsoid, the same as the first scenario. The

only thing that is different is that the disks are rotated around the y-axis instead of the x-axis, as

Figure 6 shown.
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Figure 5 Figure 6

The height of the disk is dy and the radius of the disk is the function y, which then we get the
2
𝑥²
volume of a disk, V=π(√4 − 4 ) 𝑑𝑦. To calculate the volume of the ellipsoid, we can add up all

the disks in the ellipsoid, which involves integration. The boundary between the area of volume
2
4 𝑦²
is between y=4 and y=-4. Therefore, the volume of this ellipsoid is ∫−4 𝜋 (√4 − 4 ) 𝑑𝑦.

4 𝑦²
=π∫−4 4 − 𝑑𝑦
4

𝑦³ 4
=π[4𝑥 − 12] −4 dy

64 64
=𝜋 (16 − 12 + 16 − 12)

64
= 3 π cm³
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The volume of the ellipse in two different scenarios are the same, because the major and minor

axis are the same in both scenarios. However, one is rotated around the x-axis, the other one is

rotated around the y-axis, which we use the same approach, yet different expression of the

equation. The disk method can be used in other shapes besides ellipsoid, for example, a Torricelli

Trumpet, volume under a wave function after rotating around axis and etc.

After understanding the basic idea of volume of revolution in rotating around both axis using

disk method. Figure 7 is a more difficult scenario that is rotated around the y-axis as well, but

using a different method, which is called the cylinder method, and also known as the shell

method. It can be solved using the disk method, however, it is much more difficult and there are

many areas to make mistakes than the cylinder method. In figure 7, we are finding the volume

under a curve after it has been rotated around the y-axis for 360 degrees. The equation of the

1 1 5
curve is 𝑦 = 8 𝑥² − 2 𝑥 + 2, and we are only looking at finding the volume under this curve from

x=2 to x=4.

Figure 7
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If we spin this section of the curve 360 degrees, we get a shape like a cylinder, with a hollow

center and a convex opening at the top, as Figure 8 shown.

Figure 8

Imagine that we have many different sizes and heights of cans without covers and bottoms,

starting with a can with radius of 2cm, stacking them perfectly tight together, and at the end, it

could form the shape as Figure 8 shown. If we add the area of all of the cans that form the shape,

we would find the volume of this particular shape, and this is the idea of the cylinder method.

First of all, we need to know how to find the area of cans. If we cut a can vertically, and flatten it

out, we would see a rectangle, as Figure 9 shown, which means that the area of the rectangle is

the same as the area of the can. The length of the rectangle is the circumference of the can and

the width of the rectangle is the height of the can.

Figure 9

The formula for calculating the area of the rectangle is base times height, which in this case is

the circumference of the can times the height of the can. The circumference of a can is calculated

by multiplying 2, the radius and π together, which in the case, the radius is x. Therefore the

circumference of a can is 2πx. The height of a can is y, which is determined by the equation, 𝑦 =

1 1 5 1 1 5
𝑥² − 2 𝑥 + 2. Therefore, we get that the area of a can is 2πx(8 𝑥² − 2 𝑥 + 2). As we see, in
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Figure 7, the boundary is between x=2 and x=4. Therefore the volume of this shape is equal to
4 1 1 5
∫2 2πx(8 𝑥² − 2 𝑥 + 2)𝑑𝑥.

Because 2π is a constant, we can take it out in front of the integral.

4 1 1 5
=2π ∫2 (8 𝑥 3 − 2 𝑥 2 + 2 𝑥)𝑑𝑥

x4 𝑥3 5𝑥 2 4
=2π [32 − + ]
6 4 2
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256 64 80 16 8 20
=2π [( 32 − + ) − (32 − 6 + )]
6 4 4

32 1 4
=2π [(8 − + 20) − (2 − 3 + 5)]
3

52 25
=2π ( 3 − )
6

=79π
cm³
3

1
As the calculation shown, the volume of this particular shape created by the equation, 𝑦 = 8 𝑥² −

1 5 79π
𝑥 + 2 is cm³
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Conclusion:

In conclusion, I have learned what the solid of revolution is about, hence finding the volume of

an ellipsoid rotated around both axis and the volume of other shapes, such as a Torricelli

Trumpet and other irregular shapes created by a curve. I have also learnt that the general form of

𝑏
the volume of an ellipsoid is 𝜋 ∫𝑎 [𝑓(𝑥)]² 𝑑𝑥. I was fascinated by the two methods, when I first

learned them, which shows me the diversity of methods in math. During the investigation, it was

difficult to apply math with the technology, visualize the 3D shapes, understand the concepts of

the two methods and be able to explain them. Because I did not learn about this topic in class

from the teacher, I noticed the difficulty of self-teaching myself. However, after this

investigation, I realized that being able to be self-taught is an important skill to have, not only in

math, as well as in life.

Work Cites

Stapel, Elizabeth. "Completing the Square: Ellipse Equations." Purplemath. Available from

http://www.purplemath.com/modules/sqrellps.htm. Accessed 12 June 2016.

Khan Academy. “Solid of Revolution (Part 1)” YouTube. Available from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_aqSL-q6_8. Accessed 25 Apr 2008.

Zegarelli, By Mark. "How to Use the Shell Method to Measure the Volume of a Solid -

Dummies." Available from http://www.dummies.com/education/math/calculus/how-to-use-the-

shell-method-to-measure-the-volume-of-a-solid/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2016