How do you find the volume of the solid formed by revolving the region bounded by the curves y = x³ + x² and y = 1 around the y-axis?

Finding the Volume of Revolution

To find the volume of the solid formed by revolving the region bounded by the curves y = x³ + x² and y = 1 around the y-axis, we can use the method of cylindrical shells.

1. Identify the Region

First, let’s determine the intersection points of the two curves.

Set:

x³ + x² = 1

This can be rearranged to:

x³ + x² – 1 = 0

To find the roots of this polynomial, we can use numerical methods or graphing:

  • By plotting the graph, we find that it intersects at approximately x ≈ 0.68 and x = -1.

2. Setting Up the Integral

Using the shell method, the volume V can be calculated using the formula:

V = 2π ∫[a to b] (radius)(height) dy

In this case, the radius is x and the height is given by 1 – (x³ + x²).

To convert the bounds in terms of y, we solve for x in terms of y from the equation y = x³ + x². This is non-trivial algebraically, so we will keep the variables in terms of x.

3. The Integral

The volume is then expressed as:

V = 2π ∫[0 to 0.68] x(1 – (x³ + x²)) dx

This integral can be split into two parts:

V = 2π ∫[0 to 0.68] (x – x⁴ – x³) dx

4. Calculating the Integral

We can now compute the integral:

V = 2π [0.5x² – (1/5)x⁵ – (1/4)x⁴] from 0 to 0.68

Evaluating the bounds:

At x = 0.68:

V = 2π [0.5(0.68)² – (1/5)(0.68)⁵ – (1/4)(0.68)⁴]

At x = 0:

V = 0

5. Final Volume Calculation

Plugging in the values will provide the final volume:

Calculate the numeric value of the integral to find:

V ≈ 0.4724π

Conclusion

The volume of the solid formed by revolving the specified region around the y-axis is approximately:

V ≈ 1.484 cubic units

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