Volume of Cross Sections and Area of Region - AP Calculus BC

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Question

Determine the volume of the solid obtained by rotating the region with the following bounds about the x-axis:

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Answer

From calculus, we know the volume of an irregular solid can be determined by evaluating the following integral:

Where A(x) is an equation for the cross-sectional area of the solid at any point x. We know our bounds for the integral are x=1 and x=4, as given in the problem, so now all we need is to find the expression A(x) for the area of our solid.

From the given bounds, we know our unrotated region is bounded by the x-axis (y=0) at the bottom, and by the line y=x^2-4x+5 at the top. Because we are rotating about the x-axis, we know that the radius of our solid at any point x is just the distance y=x^2-4x+5. Now that we have a function that describes the radius of the solid at any point x, we can plug the function into the formula for the area of a circle to give us an expression for the cross-sectional area of our solid at any point:

We now have our equation for the cross-sectional area of the solid, which we can integrate from x=1 to x=4 to find its volume:

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