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Section 15.7 : Triple Integrals in Spherical Coordinates

2. Evaluate Ex2+y2dV where E is the region portion of x2+y2+z2=4 with y0.

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Okay, let’s start off with a quick sketch of the region E so we can get a feel for what we’re dealing with.

We’ve given the sketches with a set of “traditional” axes as well as a set of “box” axes to help visualize the surface and region.

In this case we’re dealing with the portion of the sphere of radius 2 with y0 .

Show Step 2

Now, since we are integrating over a portion of a sphere it makes sense to use spherical coordinate for the integral and the limits are,

0φπ0θπ0ρ2

Remember that φ is the angle from the positive z-axis that we rotate through as we cover the region and θ is the angle we rotate around the z-axis as we cover the region.

In this case we have only the portion of the sphere with y0 and so θ will range from 0 to π (remember that we measure θ from the positive x-axis). Because we want the full half of the sphere with y0 we know that φ will range from 0 to π.

Show Step 3

Plugging these limits into the integral and converting to spherical coordinates gives,

Ex2+y2dV=π0π020[(ρsinφcosθ)2+(ρsinφsinθ)2](ρ2sinφ)dρdθdφ=π0π020[ρ2sin2φcos2θ+ρ2sin2φsin2θ](ρ2sinφ)dρdθdφ=π0π020[ρ2sin2φ(cos2θ+sin2θ)](ρ2sinφ)dρdθdφ=π0π020ρ4sin3φdρdθdφ

Don’t forget to convert the x and y into spherical coordinates and also don’t forget that dV=ρ2sinφdρdθdφ and so we’ll pick up a couple of extra terms when converting the dV to spherical coordinates.

In this case we also did a fair amount of simplification that will definitely make the integration easier to deal with. Don’t forget to do this kind of simplification when possible!

Show Step 4

Okay, now all we need to do is evaluate the integral. Here is the ρ integration.

Ex2+y2dV=π0π0(15ρ5sin3φ)|20dθdφ=π0π0325sin3φdθdφ Show Step 5

Next let’s do the θ integration.

Ex2+y2dV=π0(325θsin3φ)|π0dφ=π0325πsin3φdφ Show Step 6

Finally, we’ll do the φ integration.

Ex2+y2dV=π0325πsin2φsinφdφ=π0325π(1cos2φ)sinφdφ=(325π(cosφ13cos3φ))|π0=12815π

You do recall how to do the kinds of trig integrals we did in this step don’t you? If not you should head back and review some of the Calculus II material as these will be showing up on occasion.

Note that, in this case, because the limits of each of the integrals were all constants we could have done the integration in any order we wanted to.