Calculus 3 Lab III

Sailing the Line (Integrals)

Christian Kelley

ID: 810532295

Recitation # 25

Professor Geoff Sanders

Recitation Time: 12-1250

Recitation TA: Alison Brown

December 4, 2006

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 Table of Contents

Title Page..1

Table of Contents..2

Introduction...3

Body....4-11

A First Look at the Speed Functions4

Outlining the Elliptical Path.5

Leg One.6-7

Leg Two8-9

Combining the Results10

Square-Rigged Ship...11-12

Conclusion..13

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Introduction

The objective of this lab is to determine an elliptical path around the island of

Suluclac for which time will be minimized. This will be done by determining a function for

the speed of a boat moving in this elliptical path and another function for the wind vector

field around the island of Suluclac. Then, with appropriate boundary conditions, these two

functions will be analyzed and appropriate parameters adjusted so that the travel time for the

to-be-determined elliptical path around the island is a minimum.

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Body

A First Look at the Speed Functions

The most general equations for the speed of a boat are expressed simply as the

magnitude of the wind vector multiplied by some function of a single variable. Thus, we

have two functions, s and y , using the subscript s for a square rigged-ship and the

subscript y for a yacht:

s u
w max 10 cos 0.9 , 0

y u w 1 cos 2

Thus, each of these two equations can be expressed in the form of (u)= |w| g() for some

function of g. This arbitrary function g has some interesting properties. Because the cosine

is an even function, it follows that g is itself an even function. For the rigged ship, g has a

range from [0, 1], and thus is always positive. For the yacht, g has the same range

[0, 1], and thus, is also always positive.

These mathematical properties of the functions g translate into physical properties in

that the boat, when moving, should always have positive speed by definition (or be zero if

not moving). The functions are even, that is f (-x) = f (x), which confirms that the speed of

the boat will always be positive, whether our origin is situated such that x is positive or x is

negative. This is to be expected from the definition of speed as the absolute value of

velocity.

The speed function for the yacht does simplify its true speed in that a yacht is

designed to achieve maximum speed at an angle to the wind, whereas our model achieves a

maximum at zero angle, where cos (0) = 1. A modern yacht also is designed so that it is

gaining momentum except for when moving directly against the wind, which our speed

model does not account for.

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 Outlining the Elliptical Path

The coordinate system for which the ellipse will be modeled around has the origin at

the center of Suluclac, which itself is a circular island of radius 0.25. The ellipse will be

divided into two legs; the first, or north leg, moving from (x, y) = (1, 0) to (x, y) = (-1, 0);

and the second, or south leg, completing the ellipse by moving from (x, y) = (-1, 0) back to

(x, y) = (1, 0). We use the standard parameterization r (u) = cos (u) i + b sin (u) j and the

ellipse equation is given by (x2) + (y2/b2) = 1.

It will be most useful to consider b values in the range [0.01, 2]. For each of the two

legs of the path being modeled by this ellipse, speed will be plotted as a function of u and

b. A value for the time taken to travel this ellipse given the wind will then be solved for as a

function of b, from which the optimal value of b and corresponding minimum travel time

can be obtained.

Calculating this minimal travel time will require an integration of (1/) across the

domain of u. As the parameter b is being divided into y for the ellipse equation, it is

important not to include zero in the domain of b because division by zero is never allowed.

This explains why the minimum value of b being considered is 0.01.

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 Leg One

The first leg of the race (moving north, from (x, y) = (1, 0) to (x, y) = (-1, 0)) has a

range of u values [ 0, ] . A helpful visual model shows the speed generated as a function of

both u and b over this interval:

u,b for leg one

0.8
u,b 0.6
0.4
0.2
0
2
1.5

0 1 b axis
1
0.5
u axis 2
3

The above plot shows how the speed varies according to both u and b. This is helpful in

determining what path well use to minimize the travel time over this leg of the path. We

solve for the time as a function of b by integrating (distance/speed) and find that a plot of

t(b) appears as:

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 time

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t b for leg one

12

10

b
0.5 1 1.5 2

The previous plot of time as a function of b over leg one shows that there is a

minimum value for the time over the range of b-values [0.01, 2]. The minimum travel time

and corresponding optimal value of b can thus be solved for. These values for leg one are:

Leg one minimum travel time: 4.217 hours

Leg one optimal b value: 0.567

To find the length of this fastest path, use distance = speed*time where time will be the

above minimum travel time and a value for the speed can be determined by integrating the

speed over [ 0, ] and then dividing this value by the length of the interval, that is, . The

result is:

Leg one length: 26.54 miles

As it is necessary to sail around Suluclac and not run around on the island, it follows

that b must be greater than zero but not so large that it prevents the ellipse from having a y

(or vertical) component. The solution of b=0.567 over the first leg does satisfy this

requirement.

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 Leg Two

The second leg of the race (moving south, from (x, y) = (-1, 0) to (x, y) = (1, 0)) has

a range of u values [, 2] . A helpful visual model shows the speed generated as a function

of both u and b over this interval:

u,b for leg two

0.8
u,b 0.6
0.4
0.2
0
2
1.5

1 b axis
4
0.5
u axis 5
6

The above plot shows how the speed varies according to both u and b. This is helpful in

determining what path well use to minimize the travel time over this leg of the path. We

solve for the time as a function of b by integrating (distance/speed) and find that a plot of

t(b) appears as:

8
 time
25

22.5

t b for leg two

20
17.5
15
12.5
10
7.5 b
0.5 1 1.5 2

The previous plot of time as a function of b over leg two shows that there is a

minimum value for the time over the range of b-values [0.01, 2]. The minimum travel time

and corresponding optimal value of b can thus be solved for. These values for leg two are:

Leg two minimum travel time: 7.015 hours

Leg one optimal b value: 0.632

To find the length of this fastest path, use distance = speed*time where time will be the

above minimum travel time and a value for the speed can be determined by integrating the

speed over [, 2 ] and then dividing this value by the length of the interval, that is, . The

result is:

Leg one length: 28.62 miles

As it is necessary to sail around Suluclac and not run around on the island, it follows

that b must be greater than zero but not so large that it prevents the ellipse from having a y

(or vertical) component. The solution of b=0.632 over the second leg does satisfy this

requirement.

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 Combining the Results

With values found for each leg of the race individually, all that remains now is to

combine these two legs into one unified ellipse and the path along with its minimum travel

time and corresponding length can be found. The total length traveled sailing around

Suluclac following the desired ellipse is:

Total length of ellipse: 55.16 miles

The corresponding travel time in navigating this ellipse, which was found to be a minimum

value is:

Minimum travel time of path: 11.232 hours

Finally, the overall picture can be plotted. Below is a model of the physical situation

occurring. The center circle in this plot represents Suluclac, the ellipse to be followed

encircles the island, and the vector field is the wind.

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 The Big Picture

Square-Rigged Ship

The analysis so far has been geared towards a racing yacht. It will be worthwhile to

briefly apply some results of this analysis to a rigged ship. The speed of such as ship can be

plotted as a function of u and b over each of the two legs of the race (similar to the previous

ones for the speed of the yacht):

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u,b square rigged ship leg one

7.5
u,b 5
2.5
0
2
1.5

0 1 b axis
1
0.5
u axis 2
3

u,b square rigged ship leg two

u,b
5
0
-5
1.5
2

1 b axis
4
0.5
u axis 5
6

The plots of the speed as a function of u and b for the square-rigged ship share

remarkable similarities to the similar ones for the yacht. Thus, it is reasonable to assume

that it would be possible for the square-rigged ship to complete this race by following an

elliptical path.

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 The similarities between the graphs for the square-rigged ship and the yacht also

suggest that the travel times would be around the same based on the appearance of how u

and b affect the speed of the different ships.

Conclusion

The objective of this lab was to determine the minimum travel time and

corresponding elliptical path to be used in a race around the island of Suluclac. It was found

that the minimum travel time to complete the ellipse of length 55.16 miles will be 11.232
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hours. A plot of The Big Picture shows the island of Suluclac at the center, with this

ellipse encircling the island and the wind vector field superimposed:

The Big Picture

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