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The boundary of the upper half of the annulus, therefore, is and the boundary of the lower half of the annulus is Then, Green’s theorem implies
Therefore, we arrive at the equation found in Green’s theorem—namely,
The same logic implies that the flux form of Green’s theorem can also be extended to a region with finitely many holes:
Calculate integral
where D is the annulus given by the polar inequalities
Although D is not simply connected, we can use the extended form of Green’s theorem to calculate the integral. Since the integration occurs over an annulus, we convert to polar coordinates:
Let and let C be any simple closed curve in a plane oriented counterclockwise. What are the possible values of
We use the extended form of Green’s theorem to show that is either 0 or —that is, no matter how crazy curve C is, the line integral of F along C can have only one of two possible values. We consider two cases: the case when C encompasses the origin and the case when C does not encompass the origin.
In this case, the region enclosed by C is simply connected because the only hole in the domain of F is at the origin. We showed in our discussion of cross-partials that F satisfies the cross-partial condition. If we restrict the domain of F just to C and the region it encloses, then F with this restricted domain is now defined on a simply connected domain. Since F satisfies the cross-partial property on its restricted domain, the field F is conservative on this simply connected region and hence the circulation is zero.
In this case, the region enclosed by C is not simply connected because this region contains a hole at the origin. Let be a circle of radius a centered at the origin so that is entirely inside the region enclosed by C ( [link] ). Give a clockwise orientation.
Let D be the region between and C , and C is orientated counterclockwise. By the extended version of Green’s theorem,
and therefore
Since is a specific curve, we can evaluate Let
be a parameterization of Then,
Therefore,
Calculate integral where D is the annulus given by the polar inequalities and
Imagine you are a doctor who has just received a magnetic resonance image of your patient’s brain. The brain has a tumor ( [link] ). How large is the tumor? To be precise, what is the area of the red region? The red cross-section of the tumor has an irregular shape, and therefore it is unlikely that you would be able to find a set of equations or inequalities for the region and then be able to calculate its area by conventional means. You could approximate the area by chopping the region into tiny squares (a Riemann sum approach), but this method always gives an answer with some error.
Instead of trying to measure the area of the region directly, we can use a device called a rolling planimeter to calculate the area of the region exactly, simply by measuring its boundary. In this project you investigate how a planimeter works, and you use Green’s theorem to show the device calculates area correctly.
A rolling planimeter is a device that measures the area of a planar region by tracing out the boundary of that region ( [link] ). To measure the area of a region, we simply run the tracer of the planimeter around the boundary of the region. The planimeter measures the number of turns through which the wheel rotates as we trace the boundary; the area of the shape is proportional to this number of wheel turns. We can derive the precise proportionality equation using Green’s theorem. As the tracer moves around the boundary of the region, the tracer arm rotates and the roller moves back and forth (but does not rotate).
Let C denote the boundary of region D , the area to be calculated. As the tracer traverses curve C , assume the roller moves along the y -axis (since the roller does not rotate, one can assume it moves along a straight line). Use the coordinates to represent points on boundary C , and coordinates to represent the position of the pivot. As the planimeter traces C , the pivot moves along the y -axis while the tracer arm rotates on the pivot.
Watch a short animation of a planimeter in action.
Begin the analysis by considering the motion of the tracer as it moves from point counterclockwise to point that is close to ( [link] ). The pivot also moves, from point to nearby point How much does the wheel turn as a result of this motion? To answer this question, break the motion into two parts. First, roll the pivot along the y -axis from to without rotating the tracer arm. The tracer arm then ends up at point while maintaining a constant angle with the x -axis. Second, rotate the tracer arm by an angle without moving the roller. Now the tracer is at point Let be the distance from the pivot to the wheel and let L be the distance from the pivot to the tracer (the length of the tracer arm).
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