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I'm having some trouble solving a couple of problems:

  • I know this one must be pretty easy but can't find the way to solve it. I need to find the arc length of a curve described by $ r=1- \theta ; 1\leq \theta \leq 2.$

From my notes, this should be solved with $$\int_{C} f(\sigma (t)) \left \|\sigma '(t)\right \| dt$$ I would use $\sigma (t)= (1-t, t)$ since that describes $C$, but what $F$ am I supposed to use?

  • Again, I feel like this should be really easy, but can't figure it out:
    $$C = {(x,y,z,): y = 1 - x^2 ; x + y + z = 1 ; x,y \geq 0} $$

a) I need to find a regular parametrization of $C$ that starts in $(0,1,0)$ and ends in $(1,0,0).$

b) I need to find $ \int_{C} F. ds$ with $ F = (2x, y, -x).$

My problem here is finding the parametrization. I think I could use $$ 1 \leq z \leq x + y - 1 , 0 \leq x \leq a(x,y,z) , 0 \leq y \leq b(x,y,z).$$

I can't really decide what those $a$ and $b$ should be. Once that is done, I think solving b) should be pretty easy.

Anyway, I'll be grateful for any pointers on how to solve this and similar problems, since I can't seem to grasp the concepts behind most of this.

EDIT 1: Regarding problem 1, I think I should do $$\int_{1}^{2} \left \|\frac{\partial (1-\theta ; \theta )}{\partial \theta } \right \| d\theta = \sqrt{2} $$ and that should be the length. I had actually tried that but didn't seem right, but after looking around a little bit more and finding nothing, I think this is it.

EDIT 2: EDIT 1 was wrong. I had to use $$\int_{a}^{b} \sqrt{(r(\theta))^{2} + (\frac{\partial{r(\theta)}}{\partial{\theta}})^{2}}d\theta$$ with $r(\theta)=1-\theta$ which gives me $$\int_{1}^{2} \sqrt{2-2\theta+(\theta)^{2}} d\theta $$ which is pretty hard to solve. I'm guessing I still have something wrong.

Regarding problem 2: I wrote $$\sigma(t) = (t, 1-t^{2}, t^{2}-t) \in C^1$$ and also $\sigma'(t) \neq (0,0,0) $, noting that $\sigma(0)=(0,1,0)$ and $\sigma(1)=(1,0,0).$
So point a) is done. Now I needed to solve $$\int_{C} F. ds \Rightarrow \int_{0}^{1} F(\sigma(t))\sigma'(t)dt$$ I got $$\int_{0}^{1} (2t,2-2t^2, -t)(1,-2t, 2t-1)dt = \frac{-1}{6}$$ This one I think is right, but I'm not sure what the result means. Does F goes through $\sigma$ the other way around?

EDIT 3: The integral from the second excercise should be $$\int_{0}^{1} (2t,1-t^2, -t)(1,-t,2t-1) dt = \frac{1}{3}$$ which is a lot nicer. Thanks J.M.
Still not sure about the first one though.

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    A tip on the first one: personally, I don't bother to remember the special arclength formula for polar coordinates; what I do *remember* is the general formula $$s=\int\sqrt{f^\prime(t)^2+g^\prime(t)^2}\mathrm dt$$ for a parametrically defined curve $x=f(t),\qquad y=g(t)$ and then use the usual polar-to-Cartesian conversion to derive a parametric representation from a polar representation...2011-05-12
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    For the second one: what does "regular" mean?2011-05-12
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    @J.M. Regular mens that $\sigma \in C^1$ and $\sigma'(t) \neq (0,0,0)$. It must have a different name in english, but I don't know it. I made some advances, but took some time to write it, I'm still very new to latex. What's the usual polar to Cartesian conversion?2011-05-12
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    How do you turn polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates? What formula do you use? That can give you a parametric form from your polar form. With the second one, your parametrization sound right, but you seem to have made a mistake in differentiating your second component.2011-05-12
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    @J.M. Well I usually do $ x = r cos \theta $ and $ y= r sen \theta$ if I need to change from cartesian to polars. I don't really use a particular formula I guess, I just see what I can do at the moment. Are you referring to $r = \sqrt{x^2 + y^2}$ and $\theta = \tan(\frac{y}{x})$? Thanks for the correction on the second one, I hadn't composed F with $\sigma$ right. Now it's $\frac{1}{3}$ which is a lot nicer.2011-05-12
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    Yes, so your parametrization ought to be $x=(1-\theta)\cos\,\theta,\qquad y=(1-\theta)\sin\,\theta$ then, no? Then you can use the general arclength formula...2011-05-12
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    @J.M.: What do you mean by `"special arclength formula for polar coordinates"`? Do you mean the line integral -formula $\int f(c(x)) || c'(x) || dx$? If yes, can you deduce it from the general one? Could you elaborate on the `"then use the usual polar-to-Cartesian conversion to derive a parametric representation from a polar representation"`?2011-05-18
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    @hhh: If $r=\rho(\theta)$ is the polar equation for some curve, then $(\rho(\theta)\cos\,\theta\quad \rho(\theta)\sin\, \theta)^T$ is a parametric representation, 'no?2011-06-02

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