I am using two books for my calculus refresher.
- Thomas' Calculus
- Higher Math for Beginners by Ya. B. Zeldovich
My question is : When applying Integral Calculus for calculation of volumes of solids, generated by curves revolved around an axis, we use slices of 'cylinders' to approximate the volume of the resulting solid and then integrate the sum of those infinitesimal cylinders. However, when we are using the same techniques to calculate the surface area of the surfaces generated by revolving curves around an axis, we consider the 'slope' of the differential length of curve 'dx', calculate the total length of the curve and derive the required surface area.
Are we not supposed to use the same 'slope' for calculating the volumes of the infinitesimal 'cylinders' for calculation of volumes? Shouldn't we use 'sliced portions of 'cones' as the infinitesimal volumes?? When it come to calculation of volumes of solids of revolution, why are we neglecting the slope of the curve for the differential length and simply assume that it is an infinitesimal cylinder??
Ex: Let us say we want to calculate the surface area and the volume of the solid generated when the parabola y = 10 . x^2 is revolved about the y-axis, with limits of x from 0 to 5.
In such cases, when calculating the volume of the solid, we consider infinitesimal 'cylinders', ignoring the 'slope' of the curve for the differential element 'dx', but when calculating the surface area, we consider the 'slope' of the differential element 'dx'.