Volume of an Object

I will be informing readers on how to find the area of an irregular but symmetrical object. In this report I will include a three dimensional model of the object using Mathmatica. My goal is to give the reader a better idea on how I went about calculating of volume of the object I am using. My hope is that the readers understanding will extend beyond measuring a margarita cup. The object I selected is a margarita cup. I measured the cup with a caliper and I measured in inches. I took the height of the cup and then tuned the cup on its side to take measurements of the diameter. It is necessary to take measurements for the x and y coordinates. The length will be the represented by the x value. The diameter of the object will be represented by the y value. You will want to take several points of measurement for your graph to look like your object. I took 16 point of measurement of the object. Each point with an x and y value; you may take more points.

x 0 0.383 0.766 1.149 1.532 1.56 2.552 3.048 3.544 4.06 4.576 5.61 6.02 6.43 6.84 7.252

y 4.773 4.472 4.225 3.69 2.315 1.983 1.69 1.171 0.693 0.473 0.443 0.396 0.77 1.483 2.283 3.179

y/2 2.3865 2.236 2.1125 1.845 1.1575 0.9915 0.845 0.5855 0.3465 0.2365 0.2215 0.198 0.305 0.74 1.1415 1.5895

As you can tell I have three columns the third column is the radius of the cup [y/2] at the x point taken. The y is the diameter of the cup at the x point taken. Y is divided because we are only graphing half of the cup then rotating it about the x-axis. When x and [y/2] are plotted you get the shape of your graph.

To get an estimate of the value under the curve you use Simpsons rule to calculate. Since we are calculating the value you use Simpsons formula in the following form:

Where is y/2 since that is the how the function is defined at that point. In the equation a is 0 because that is where I chose to start at and b is 7.252in. the length of my object, n is the number of partitions; in my case 16.Rotating the object around the x-axis we will get a three dimensional picture. We can use mathmatica to calculate the volume of the object and compare it to our handwritten calculation. The equation for calculating the area of the object is .Where is the definition of the function at every point x in our bounds. The integration from a to b is the length of the object. In my calculations using Simpsons rule gave me a value of 37.5677in cubed. Using mathmatica to calculate the volume of the object I got 27.8982in cubed. A difference of 9.66952 in cubed.