7 Applications of Integration

Copyright Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Arc Length
7.4

Copyright Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Arc Length
Definite integrals are use to find the arc lengths of curves and
the areas of surfaces of revolution.

In either case, an arc (a segment of a curve) is approximated

by straight line segments whose lengths are given by the
familiar Distance Formula

A rectifiable curve is one that has a finite arc length. 3

Arc Length
You will see that a sufficient condition for the graph of a
function f to be rectifiable between (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)) is that
f' be continuous on [a, b].

Such a function is continuously differentiable on [a, b], and

its graph on the interval [a, b] is a smooth curve.

4
Arc Length
Consider a function y = f(x) that is continuously differentiable
on the interval [a, b]. You can approximate the graph of f by n
line segments whose endpoints are determined by the partition

a = x0 < x1 < x2 < < xn = b as shown in Figure 7.37.

Figure 7.37
Arc Length
By letting xi = xi xi 1 and yi = yi yi 1, you can
approximate the length of the graph by

This approximation appears to become better and better as 6

Arc Length
So, the length of the graph is

Because f'(x) exists for each x in (xi 1, xi ), the Mean Value

Theorem guarantees the existence of ci in (xi 1, xi ) such that

7
Arc Length
Because f' is continuous on [a, b], it follows that
is also continuous (and therefore integrable) on [a, b], which
implies that

where s is called the arc length of f between a and b.

8
Arc Length

9
 Example 1 The Length of a Line Segment
Find the arc length from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) on the graph of f(x) =
mx + b, as shown in Figure 7.38.

Figure 7.38 10
Example 1 Solution
Because

it follows that

11
Example 1 Solution contd

which is the formula for the distance between two points

in the plane.

12
 Example: Find the length of arc of the given curve.

1. x2 = (2y + 3)3 from (1, -1) to (7 2, 2) .

2 3/2
2. y = ( x 5) from the point where x = 6 to the point
3
where x = 8.

3. 6xy = y4 + 3 from the point where y = 1 to the point where y = 2.

4. y = 4 cosh (x/4) (catenary) from x = 0 to x = 4

5. 9y 2 = x (2x+3)
2 from x = -1 and x =0
13
 Solutions:

1. x 2 = (2y + 3)3 from (1, -1) to (7 2, 2) .

d d 2
dx
s 1 g' (y) dy or s

2 1 dy
dy
c c
dx 1/2
3/2
Since x = (2y + 3) 3(2y 3)
, then . Thus,
dy

s
2
1 9(2y 3)dy
2


1
18y 28dy 18 18y 28 2
1
1 1
17.79
14