Intuitive Explanation to Pappus Theorem

487 Views Asked by At

Pappus's theorem is as follows:

First theorem:

The first theorem states that the surface area A of a surface of revolution generated by rotating a plane curve C about an axis external to C and on the same plane is equal to the product of the arc length s of C and the distance d traveled by the geometric centroid of C.

Second Theorem:

The volume V of a solid of revolution generated by rotating a plane figure F about an external axis is equal to the product of the area A of F and the distance d traveled by the geometric centroid of F. (Note that the centroid of F is usually different from the centroid of its boundary curve C.)

Is there an intuitive way to see this?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On

I'll address the volume and you can address the surface area similarly. So let's consider the volume of a body of rotation (about the vertical axis, $z$). In cylindrical coordinates the volume is given by

$$V=\iiint r\ f(r,\theta,z)\ dr \ d\theta\ dz$$

Now, if $f=f(r,z)$ only, then

$$V=\int_0^{2\pi} \left[\iint r\ f(r,z)\ dr \ dz \right]\ d\theta=2\pi \iint r\ f(r,z)\ dr \ dz$$

Now, we know that the centroid is given by

$$C=\frac{\iint r\ f(r,z)\ dr \ dz}{\iint f(r,z)\ dr \ dz}$$

But the denomintor is just the area, $A$. Hence we end up with Pappus's $2^{nd}$ Centroid Theorem,

$$V=2\pi C A$$