1

Theorm:

The area under a three dimensional curve described by the function f from an initial point (x1 , y1 ) to a nal point (x2 , y2 ) is:
y2 y1 x2

f (x, y ) dx dy
x1

Proof:

We must rst nd the formula for the area under a curve as a limit of an innite sum.
b
b w a w

f (x) dx = lim
a

w+0

wf (kw) lim
k=0

w+0

wf (kw)
k=0

This can be understood by condidering the approximation of an area under a curve using rectangles. The amount of rectangles that can t under a b curve from 0 to point b is w where w is the width of the rectangle. As the width of the rectangles go to 0, the amount of them goes to innity, giving us the exact area. We can now takle the concept of nding the volume under three dimensional graphs. To nd the exact volume under a graph, we can consider summing an innite number of innitly small slices of the graph for every possible y value. Calling this function V , this can be mathematically expressed as
y2 D

x2

y1 D

V (x1 , y1 , x2 , y2 ) = lim

D+0

D
k=0 x1

f (x, kD) dx lim

x2

D+0

D
k=0 x1

f (x, kD) dx

The limit D is the width of each innitly thin slice. The integrals of this equation can be expressed as a function of kD, g .
y2 D y1 D

V (x1 , y1 , x2 , y2 ) = lim

D+0

D g (kD) dx lim
k=0

D+0

D g (kD) dx
k=0

This matches our denition of an integral that we dened earlier, so we can rewrite this as y2 V (x1 , y1 , x2 , y2 ) = g (y ) dy
y1

When substituting original integral for g , we get

y2 x2

V (x1 , y1 , x2 , y2 ) = And now we are done.

f (x, y ) dx dy
y1 x1