Applications of Double

Integrals

By
Ritik Gupta
Roll No : 1914113
 LAMINAS AND DENSITY
A lamina is a flat sheet (or plate) that is so thin as to
be considered two-dimensional.
Suppose the lamina occupies a region D of the xy-
plane and its density (in units of mass per area) at a
point (x, y) in D is given by ρ(x, y), where ρ is a
continuous function on D. This means that
m
 ( x, y )  lim
A
where Δm and ΔA are the mass and area of a small
rectangle that contains (x, y) and the limit is taken as the
dimensions of the rectangle approach 0.
 MASS OF A LAMINA
To find the mass of a lamina, we partition D into small
* *
rectangles Rij of the same size. Pick a point ij ij )
( x , y
in Rij. The mass of Rij is approximately  ( x *
ij , y *
ij ) A( Rij ),

and the total mass of the lamina is approximately

k l
m    ( xij* , yij* ) A.
i 1 j 1

The actual mass is obtained by taking the limit of the

above expression as both k and l approach zero. That
is, k l
m  lim   ( xij* , yij* ) A    ( x, y ) dA.
k ,l  
i 1 j 1 D
 MOMENTS
The moment of a point about an axis is the product of
its mass and its distance from the axis.
To find the moments of a lamina about the x- and y-
axes, we partition D into small rectangles and assume
the entire mass of each subrectangle is concentrated at
an interior point. Then the moment of Rij about the x-
axis is given by
(mass)( yij* )    ( xij* , yij* )A yij*

and the moment of Rk about the y-axis is given by

 
(mass)( xij* )   ( xij* , yij* )A xij*
 MOMENTS (CONCLUDED)
The moment about the x-axis of the entire
lamina is
m n
M x  lim
m,n  
 y
i 1 j 1
*
ij  ( x , y ) A   y  ( x, y ) dA
*
ij
*
ij
D

The moment about the y-axis of the entire

lamina is
m n
M y  lim
m,n  
 ij ij ij ) A   x  ( x, y) dA
x *
 (
i 1 j 1
x *
, y *

D
 CENTER OF MASS
The center of mass of a lamina is the “balance point.”
That is, the place where you could balance the lamina on
a “pencil point.” The coordinates (x, y) of the center of
mass of a lamina occupying the region D and having
density function ρ(x, y) is
My 1 Mx 1
x   x  ( x, y ) dA y   y  ( x, y ) dA
m m D m m D

where the mass m is given by

m    ( x, y ) dA
D
 MOMENTS OF INERTIA
The moment of inertia (also called the second
moment) of a particle of mass m about an axis is
defined to be mr2, where r is the distance from
the particle to the axis. We extend this concept to
a lamina with density function ρ(x, y) and
occupying region D as we did for ordinary
moments.
 MOMENTS OF INERTIA
CONCLUDED
The moment of inertia about the x-axis is

I x   y  ( x, y ) dA
2

The moment of inertia about the y-axis is

I y   x  ( x, y ) dA
2

D
The moment of inertia about the origin (or polar moment)
is
I 0   ( x  y )  ( x, y ) dA  I x  I y
2 2