MATH 155 Chapter1

Finding areas and volumes: question of a big practical interest since ancient
times!

1.1 Areas of simple shapes

In this section we will begin thinking about area—a fundamental parameter for
integral calculus. In some cases area is easy to compute.

How to find area of a circle?

1. Inscribed triangle 2. Inscribed square

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3. Inscribed polygon

4. Inscribed vs circumscribed polygon: underestimating vs overestimating

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1.2 Simple volumes

The Tower of Hanoi: a tower of discs. We now illustrate how the elementary shapes
can be used to determine the volumes of more complex objects. The Tower of
Hanoi is a shape consisting of a number of stacked discs.
Example 1 (a) Compute the volume of a
tower made up of four discs stacked one
on top of the other. Assume that the radii
of the discs are 1, 2, 3, and 4 units and
that each disc has height 1.
(b) Compute the volume of a tower made
up of 100 such stacked discs, with radii
r = 1, 2, ... , 99,100.

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1.3 Sigma notation
Famous German mathematician Karl Gauss: a teacher asked to find
1+2+…+99+100 
1 + 2 + 3 + … + 99 + 100 = S
100 + + + … + + =S

Let a1 , a2 , a3 ,..., an1 , an be real numbers and n – a positive integer.

Sequence: a list of the ordered terms a1 , a2 , a3 ,..., an1 , an

Sum (series): a1  a2  a3  ...  an1  an

a
i k
i  ak  ak 1  ak  2  ...  an1  an

Example 2 (a) Write each sum in the expanded form

4 5

k 
k 1
i
i 2
2


n
1

m 1 m


(b) Write each sum using sigma notation

3  4  5  6  k  i  

1  3  5  ...  (2n  1)    
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 Useful formulas

n(n  1) n(n  1)(2n  1)  n(n  1) 

n n n 2


k 1
k 
2

k 1
k 2

6

k 1
k 3
 
 2 


Algebraic rules
n

Constant value rule: 1 

m 1
n
n n n

Linearity:  (ca
i k
i  dbi )  c ai  d  bi
i k i k

Example 3 Find (a)  (2m  3) 

m 1

40

(b) m 
m4

40

(c)  (m  1)
m 0
3


Example 4 The Tower of Hanoi, revisited

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1.4 Summing the geometric series
Problem. Determine the sum of the following geometric series
1  r  r 2  r 3  ...  r n1  r n

Useful formula
n
1  r n1
Sn  1  r  r  r  ...  r
2 3 n 1
 r  r 
n k
, r 1
k 0 1 r

More generally, if a and r are constants, then

a  ar  ar 2  ar 3  ...  ar n1  ar n  a(1  r  r 2  r 3  ...  r n1  r n )

which gives the following general result

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 m
1 30

Example 5 Compute the following sum 30   

S 
m0  2 

1.5 Prelude to infinite series

Sigma notation will also be useful for working with infinite sums.

Definition. If a sequence has infinitely many terms

a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 , ..., am1 , am2 ,... ,


then we can consider an infinite series  a . The partial sums,

k 0
k S n of this
n

series are Sn   ak . We say that the sum of the infinite series is S and write
k 0
 n
S   ak provided that S  lim Sn  lim  ak . The sum converges if it has
n  n 
k 0 k 0
a finite limit and diverges otherwise.

The infinite series have a finite sum only under certain circumstances.

 m
1
Example 6 Compute S    
m0  2 

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1.6 The branching structure of the lungs
In this section we will introduce a mathematical model for the structure of the lungs
and explore some of its consequences. In particular, we are interested in the way
in which the lungs branch.

We will make a variety of simplifying assumptions:

 The airway passages consist of many “generations” of branched segments.

We label the largest segment with index “0”, and its daughter segments with index
“1”, their successive daughters “2”, and so on down the structure from large to small
branch segments.

 We assume that there are M “generations”, i.e. the initial segment has
undergone M subdivisions. In humans usually 25  M  30.

 In generation n, every segment is approximated as a cylinder of radius rn

and length ln .

 The number of branches grows along the “tree”. On average, each parent
branch produces b daughter branches (b = 2 in the figure). In humans b  1.7 .

 The ratio of the radius and length of a daughter segment to the parent
segment is given by “proportional scaling” ln1   ln and rn1   rn where
0    1 and 0    1 .

We assume that generation 0 has just a single branch. Following our setup, this is
modelled as a cylinder of radius r0 and length l0 . Using the formulas for surface
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area (of the sides) and volume we have:

What happens when we move to the next generation? Each cylinder in the
first generation has length  l0 and radius  r0 . So we have:

However, there are more branches in the first generation than in the generation 0
by a factor of b. It follows that the total area and volume of the first generation are:

What happens when we move from the first generation to the second? Again each
of the cylinders has radius multiplied by  and length multiplied by  . So

However, there are more branches in the second generation than in the first by
a factor of b. It follows that the total area and volume of the second generation
are:

In general, each successive generation will have surface area equal to  b times
that of the previous generation. So the total surface area (assuming it goes to
generation M) is given by the geometric series

2 r0l0 (1  ( b)  ( b)2  ( b)3  ...  ( b) M )

Therefore we have:
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 1  ( b) M
total surface area =2 r0l0
1  ( b)

The volume scales a little differently. Each successive generation will have volume
equal to  b times that of the previous generation. So, the total volume is given
2

by the geometric series

 r02l0 (1  ( 2b)  ( 2b)2  ( 2b)3  ...  ( 2b)M )

Therefore we have:
1  ( 2b) M
total volume = r l 2

1  ( 2b)
0 0

Although this model makes a number of simplifying assumptions, it nevertheless

gives us a very useful understanding of the geometric structure of the lungs. Thanks
to the self-similar relationship between successive layers, both the total volume and
total surface area are geometric series.

As a consequence, the formula for the sum of a geometric series gives good insight
into the volume and surface area of the lungs, and how these quantities are
distributed over the many generations.

Actual lungs are not fully symmetric branching structures, but these approximations
are used here for simplicity. According to physiological measurements, the scale
factors for sizes of daughter to parent size are in the range 0.65  ,  0.9 .
For the purposes of this example, we use the constants given below

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Total number of segments

M
1  b N 1 1  (1.7)31
N  b  n
  1.9898 107  2 107
k 0 1 b 1  1.7

According to this calculation, there are a total of about 20 million branch segments
overall (including all layers, from top to bottom) in the entire structure!

Total volume of airways

M
1  ( 2b) M 1 1  (1.131588)31
V r l 2
0 0  ( b)
k 0
2 n
r l
2
0 0
1   2b
 4.4
1  1.131588
 1510.3cm3

Recall that 1 liter = 1000 cm3 . We have found that the lung airways contain
about 1.5 liters.

Total surface area of airways

M
1  ( b) M 1 1  (1.3158)31
S  2 r0 l0  ( b)  2 r0 l0 n
 17.6  2.76 105 cm 2
k 0 1   b 1  1.3158

There are 100 cm per meter, thus, the area we have computed is equivalent to
about 28 square meters!

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