I was working on this question for a little while and I finally got it "done". However, I am not quite sure if what I did was correct or not. Here is the details:
- Consider $y = xe^{-x^2}$ being rotated around the x-axis. The question says:
Does the resulting solid have a finite volume? If so, determine its volume.
My answer was yes, and here is what I've done:
Starting from
$$I=\pi \int _0^{\infty} x^2e^{-2x^2}dx$$
we make a substitution $2x^2=t$ which gives $4xdx=dt$, or $dx=\dfrac{d t}{4x}$. From $2x^2=t$ we get $x^2=\dfrac{t}{2}$ and $x=\dfrac{t^{1/2}}{\sqrt{2}}$ and therefore $dx=\dfrac{\sqrt{2}}{4}t^{-1/2}dt$. Substituting gives
$$I=\pi \int _0^{\infty} x^2e^{-2x^2}dx=\pi \int _0^{\infty} \frac{t}{2}e^{-t}\dfrac{\sqrt{2}}{4}t^{-1/2}dt=\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi}{8}\int _0^{\infty }t^{1/2}e^{-t}dt=\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi}{8}\Gamma\left(\frac{3}{2}\right)$$
Where $\Gamma $ is the Euler gamma function. Using the property $\Gamma (n)=(n-1)\Gamma (n-1)$ we get $\Gamma \left(\dfrac{3}{2}\right)=\dfrac{1}{2}\Gamma \left(\dfrac{1}{2}\right)$ and the fact that $\Gamma \left(\dfrac{1}{2}\right)=\sqrt{\pi }$ we have $\Gamma \left(\dfrac{3}{2}\right)=\dfrac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}$. Therefore
$$I=\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi}{8}\Gamma\left(\frac{3}{2}\right)=\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi}{8}\cdot \dfrac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}=\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi ^{3/2}}{16}$$