Surface integral

In mathematics, a surface integral is a generalization of multiple integrals to integration over surfaces. It

can be thought of as the double integral analogue of the line integral. Given a surface, one may integrate a
scalar field (that is, a function of position which returns a scalar as a value) over the surface, or a vector field
(that is, a function which returns a vector as value). If a region R is not flat, then it is called surface as shown
in the illustration.

Surface integrals have applications in physics, particularly with the theories of classical electromagnetism.

Contents
Surface integrals of scalar fields
Surface integrals of vector fields
Surface integrals of differential 2-forms
Theorems involving surface integrals
The definition of surface integral
Dependence on parametrization
relies on splitting the surface into
See also small surface elements.
References
External links

Surface integrals of scalar fields

To find an explicit formula for the surface integral over a surface S,
we need to parameterize S by defining a system of curvilinear
coordinates on S, like the latitude and longitude on a sphere. Let
such a parameterization be x(s, t), where (s, t) varies in some region
T in the plane. Then, the surface integral is given by

An illustration of a single surface

element. These elements are made
where the expression between bars on the right-hand side is the infinitesimally small, by the limiting
magnitude of the cross product of the partial derivatives of x(s, t), process, so as to approximate the
and is known as the surface element. The surface integral can also be surface.
expressed in the equivalent form

where g is the determinant of the first fundamental form of the surface mapping x(s, t).[1][2]

For example, if we want to find the surface area of the graph of some scalar function, say , we
have
where . So that , and . So,

which is the standard formula for the area of a surface described this way. One can recognize the vector in
the second-last line above as the normal vector to the surface.

Note that because of the presence of the cross product, the above formulas only work for surfaces embedded
in three-dimensional space.

This can be seen as integrating a Riemannian volume form on the parameterized surface, where the metric
tensor is given by the first fundamental form of the surface.

Surface integrals of vector fields

Consider a vector field v on a surface S, that is, for each x in S, v(x) is a vector.

The surface integral can be defined component-wise according to the definition of the surface integral of a
scalar field; the result is a vector. This applies for example in the expression of the electric field at some
fixed point due to an electrically charged surface, or the gravity at some fixed point due to a sheet of
material.

Alternatively, if we integrate the normal component of the vector field over the surface, the result is a scalar,
usually called the flux passing through the surface. Imagine that we have a fluid flowing through S, such that
v(x) determines the velocity of the fluid at x. The flux is defined as the quantity of fluid flowing through S
per unit time.

This illustration implies that if the vector field is tangent to S at each point, then the flux is zero because the
fluid just flows in parallel to S, and neither in nor out. This also implies that if v does not just flow along S,
that is, if v has both a tangential and a normal component, then only the normal component contributes to
the flux. Based on this reasoning, to find the flux, we need to take the dot product of v with the unit surface
normal n to S at each point, which will give us a scalar field, and integrate the obtained field as above. We
find the formula
 A curved surface with a vector field passing
through it. The red arrows (vectors) represent the
magnitude and direction of the field at various
points on the surface

Surface divided into small patches by a

parameterization of the surface

The flux through each patch is

equal to the normal
(perpendicular) component of the
field at the
patch's location multiplied by
the area . The normal
component is equal to the dot
product of with the unit
normal vector (blue arrows)

The total flux through the surface is found by

adding up for each patch. In the limit as
 the patches become infinitesimally small, this is the
surface integral

The cross product on the right-hand side of this expression is a (not necessarily unital) surface normal
determined by the parametrisation.

This formula defines the integral on the left (note the dot and the vector notation for the surface element).

We may also interpret this as a special case of integrating 2-forms, where we identify the vector field with a
1-form, and then integrate its Hodge dual over the surface. This is equivalent to integrating over
the immersed surface, where is the induced volume form on the surface, obtained by interior
multiplication of the Riemannian metric of the ambient space with the outward normal of the surface.

Surface integrals of differential 2-forms

Let

be a differential 2-form defined on a surface S, and let

be an orientation preserving parametrization of S with in D. Changing coordinates from to

, the differential forms transform as

So transforms to , where denotes the determinant of the Jacobian of the

transition function from to . The transformation of the other forms are similar.

Then, the surface integral of f on S is given by

where

is the surface element normal to S.

Let us note that the surface integral of this 2-form is the same as the surface integral of the vector field
which has as components , and .

Theorems involving surface integrals

Various useful results for surface integrals can be derived using differential geometry and vector calculus,
such as the divergence theorem, and its generalization, Stokes' theorem.

Dependence on parametrization
Let us notice that we defined the surface integral by using a parametrization of the surface S. We know that a
given surface might have several parametrizations. For example, if we move the locations of the North Pole
and the South Pole on a sphere, the latitude and longitude change for all the points on the sphere. A natural
question is then whether the definition of the surface integral depends on the chosen parametrization. For
integrals of scalar fields, the answer to this question is simple; the value of the surface integral will be the
same no matter what parametrization one uses.

For integrals of vector fields, things are more complicated because the surface normal is involved. It can be
proven that given two parametrizations of the same surface, whose surface normals point in the same
direction, one obtains the same value for the surface integral with both parametrizations. If, however, the
normals for these parametrizations point in opposite directions, the value of the surface integral obtained
using one parametrization is the negative of the one obtained via the other parametrization. It follows that
given a surface, we do not need to stick to any unique parametrization, but, when integrating vector fields,
we do need to decide in advance in which direction the normal will point and then choose any
parametrization consistent with that direction.

Another issue is that sometimes surfaces do not have parametrizations which cover the whole surface. The
obvious solution is then to split that surface into several pieces, calculate the surface integral on each piece,
and then add them all up. This is indeed how things work, but when integrating vector fields, one needs to
again be careful how to choose the normal-pointing vector for each piece of the surface, so that when the
pieces are put back together, the results are consistent. For the cylinder, this means that if we decide that for
the side region the normal will point out of the body, then for the top and bottom circular parts, the normal
must point out of the body too.

Lastly, there are surfaces which do not admit a surface normal at each point with consistent results (for
example, the Möbius strip). If such a surface is split into pieces, on each piece a parametrization and
corresponding surface normal is chosen, and the pieces are put back together, we will find that the normal
vectors coming from different pieces cannot be reconciled. This means that at some junction between two
pieces we will have normal vectors pointing in opposite directions. Such a surface is called non-orientable,
and on this kind of surface, one cannot talk about integrating vector fields.

See also
Divergence theorem
 Stokes' theorem
Line integral
Volume element
Volume integral
Cartesian coordinate system
Volume and surface area elements in spherical coordinate systems
Volume and surface area elements in cylindrical coordinate systems
Holstein–Herring method

References
1. Edwards, C. H. (1994). Advanced Calculus of Several Variables. Mineola, NY: Dover. p. 335.
ISBN 0-486-68336-2.
2. Hazewinkel, Michiel (2001). Encyclopedia of Mathematics (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.or
g/index.php/Surface_integral). Springer. pp. Surface Integral. ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4.

External links
Surface Integral — from MathWorld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SurfaceIntegral.html)
Surface Integral — Theory and exercises (http://www.math.gatech.edu/%7Ecain/notes/cal15.p
df)

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