MAT235 Tutorial 15 (Mar.
19 – 22)
1. Practice problems
(1) Find the surface area of the solid bounded by the planes y +z = 6, z = 0 and the cylinder x2 +y 2 = 4.
Answer: Let S be the boundary of the solid. Split S into three pieces:
• S1 , the part of the surface y + z = 6.
• S2 , the part of the surface x2 + y 2 = 4.
• S3 , the part of the xy-plane.
To find the surface area of S, we find the surface area of each of S1 , S2 , S3 and then add them.
• S1 : Parametrize using ⃗r(u, v) = ⟨u, v, 6 − v⟩. Then ⃗ru ×⃗rv = ⟨0, 1, 1⟩ and the domain of the surface
is the closed disk x2 + y 2 ≤ 4 in the xy-plane. Thus, using polar coordinates, the surface area of
S1 is ZZ √
ZZ ZZ √
dA = ∥⃗ru × ⃗rv ∥ dA = 2 dA = 4 2π.
S D D
• S2 : Parametrize using cylindrical coordinates: ⃗r(θ, z) = ⟨2 cos θ, 2 sin θ, z⟩ where 0 ≤ θ ≤ 2π and
0 ≤ z ≤ 6 − 2 sin θ (since the upper bound is achieved when we hit the plane z = 6 − y). Then
⃗rθ × ⃗rz = ⟨2 cos θ, 2 sin θ, 0⟩. Using this in the surface area formula, we get that the surface area
of S2 is 24π.
• S3 : Note that the surface area√is just the area of a circle√ of radius 2, and so the surface area is 4π.
Thus, the surface area of S is 4 2π + 24π + 4π = 4π(7 + 2).
(2) Let S be the unit sphere centred at the origin. Use a parametrization to find a formula for the
surface area of the part of S which lies above the plane z = 21 .
Answer: First, parametrize the sphere of radius ρ = 1 using spherical coordinates:
⃗r(ϕ, θ) = ⟨sin ϕ cos θ, sin ϕ sin θ, cos ϕ⟩.
Since we only want the part of the sphere above the plane z = 1/2, we need to restrict the ϕ range.
The intersection of the sphere with the plane z = 1/2 occurs when z = cos ϕ = 1/2, i.e. when
cos ϕ = 1/2, which gives ϕ = π/3 (keeping in mind that ϕ ∈ [0, π]). Thus, we take 0 ≤ θ ≤ 2π and
0 ≤ ϕ ≤ π/3 for the domain of parametrization. Using the fact that
⃗rϕ × ⃗rθ = ⟨sin2 ϕ cos θ, sin2 ϕ sin θ, sin ϕ cos ϕ⟩
we get
∥⃗rϕ × ⃗rθ ∥ = sin ϕ
and so ZZ Z π/3 Z 2π
1
ϕ=π/3
dA = = 2π[1 − ] = π
sin ϕ dθdϕ = 2π [− cos ϕ]ϕ=0
S 0 0 2
1
and thus the surface area of the part of S above the plane z = 2 is equal to π.
2. Sample quiz problem
(1) Find a parametrization of the part of the sphere x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 16√in the first octant (x, y, z > 0)
√
which lies between the planes z = 0 and z = 2 3. (Hint: cos( π6 ) = 23 .)
Answer: First, parametrize the sphere of radius 4 using spherical coordinates:
⃗r(ϕ, θ) = ⟨4 sin ϕ cos θ, 4 sin ϕ sin θ, 4 cos ϕ⟩.
Since we only want the part of the sphere between the√ given planes, we need to restrict
√ the ϕ range.
The intersection
√
of the sphere with the plane z = 2 3 occurs when z = 4 cos ϕ = 2 3, i.e. when
3
cos ϕ = 2 , which gives ϕ = π/6. The intersection with the plane z = 0 happens when ϕ = π/2.
Thus, we take 0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2 and π/6 ≤ ϕ ≤ π/2.