Change of Variables project
Ruhani Alam
Calculating dV for spherical coordinates
Change of variables:
x=
y=
z=
=
=
Determinant above=
= 
Determinant above=
The two determinants are equal to each other by Theorem 8 of Section 10.4 which states that
If a, b, c are vectors and c is scalar, then
=
=
=
=
=
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This is the factor for spherical coordinates
The dV is now this factor times
dV=
Example:
Find the mass of a star that is a ball of radius 3 centered at the origin if the density of the star is
g(x,y,z)=10-x2-y2-z2
g(x,y,z)dxdydz
=
This integral is a mess, so using spherical coordinate would make it a lot easier.
V=
=
=
520.2477
Calculating dV for cylindrical coordinates
change of variables:
x=
y=
z=w
Determinant above=

Determinant above=
The two determinants are equal to each other by Theorem 8 of Section 10.4 which states that
If a, b, c are vectors and c is scalar, then
![]()
=
r
The change of variables factor is absolute value of this determinant.
Then dV is this factor times
dV=
Example: Find the volume of cone of height 1 and radius 1. Bounded by the surface z=
and plane z=1.
Using cartesian coordinates, the integral is:
dzdydx
Since this integral is extremely messy, it can be made a lot easier using cylindrical coordinates:
V=
dzd
dr
=
=
3.14
To find the volume of an ice cream cone:
In Cartesian coordinates:
dzdydx
Since this is very messy, spherical coordinates can be used to make the integral a lot cleaner
Spherical coordinates:

=
.6134
This same method from above can be applied to any non-standard shape