Compute the line integral

**Apprentice123** · April 25th 2009, 10:30 AM

Calculate line integral $\int_c xydx + x^2y^3dy$ , where c is triangle with vertices at points (0,0), (1,0) and (1,2).

How can I find r(t) ?

**Jhevon** · April 25th 2009, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by Apprentice123

Calculate line integral $\int_c xydx + x^2y^3dy$ , where c is triangle with vertices at points (0,0), (1,0) and (1,2).

How can I find r(t) ?

you have to state what direction you are going in. is it from (0,0) to (1,0) to (1,2)??

you will have to do three separate integrals, one for each side of the triangle. for each, your r(t) will be the vector function for the line.

Here is how to proceed:

Assuming we are going from (0,0) to (1,0) to (1,2), call the line connecting (0,0) to (1,0) $C_1$ , the line connecting (1,0) and (1,2) $C_2$ and the line connecting (1,2) back to (0,0) $C_3$ .

Then we have $\int_C F = \int_{C_1}F + \int_{C_2}F + \int_{C_3}F$ .

lets concentrate on $C_1$ .

for $C_1$ , we have the line $y = 0$ , with x ranging from 0 to 1. thus, we can parametrize the line by:

$x = t$ , $y = 0$ , for $0 \le t \le 1$

and so, $dx = 1$ , $dy = 0$ , and our integral for $C_1$ becomes:

$\int_0^1 t(0)(1) + t^2(0)^3(0)~dt = \int_0^1 0~dt = 0$

now do the same for $C_2$ and $C_3$ .

(note, there is no need to introduce a $t$ here. we could have parametrized our line by $x = x$ , $y = 0$ for $0 \le x \le 1$ )

**Apprentice123** · April 25th 2009, 02:36 PM

thank you

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