Changing Variables in Multiple Integrals

1. Changing variables.
Doubleintegralsinx, y coordinateswhicharetakenovercircularregions,orhaveinte-
grandsinvolvingthecombinationx
2
+y
2
,areoftenbetterdoneinpolarcoordinates:
(1) f(x, y) dA = g(r, ) r drd .
R R
Thisinvolvesintroducingthenewvariablesr and,togetherwiththeequationsrelating
themtox, y inboththeforwardandbackwarddirections:
(2) r = x
2
+y
2
, =tan
1
(y/x); x =r cos , y =r sin .
Changingtheintegraltopolarcoordinatesthenrequiresthreesteps:
A. Changingtheintegrandf(x, y) tog(r, ), by using (2);
B. Supplyingtheareaelementinther, system:dA =r dr d ;
C. UsingtheregionR todeterminethelimitsofintegrationinther, system.
Inthesameway,doubleintegralsinvolvingothertypesofregionsorintegrandscan
sometimesbesimpliedbychangingthecoordinatesystemfromx, y toonebetteradapted
totheregionorintegrand. Letscallthenewcoordinatesu andv;thentherewillbe
equationsintroducingthenewcoordinates,goinginbothdirections:
(3) u =u(x, y), v =v(x, y); x =x(u, v), y =y(u, v)
(oftenonewillonlygetorusetheequationsinoneofthesedirections). Tochangethe
integraltou, v-coordinates,wethenhavetocarryoutthethreestepsA, B, C above. A
rststepis to picture thenewcoordinatesystem;for thisweuse thesame ideaas for polar
coordinates,namely,weconsiderthegridformedbythelevelcurvesofthenewcoordinate
functions:
u=u
0
u=u (4) u(x, y) =u
0
, v(x, y) =v
0
.
1
u=u
2
Oncewehavethis,algebraicandgeometricintuitionwillusuallyhandle
stepsA andC,butforB wewillneedaformula:itusesadeterminant
v=v
0
v=v
calledtheJacobian,whosenotationanddenitionare
1
v=v
2
(x, y)

x
u
x
v

(5) = .
(u, v) y
u
y
v
Usingit,theformulafortheareaelementintheu, v-systemis

(x, y)


(u, v)

(6) dA = dudv ,
1








2 CHANGING VARIABLES IN MULTIPLE INTEGRALS
sothechangeofvariableformulais

(x, y)

(7) f(x, y) dxdy = g(u, v) dudv ,

(u, v)

R R
whereg(u, v) isobtainedfromf(x, y) bysubstitution,usingtheequations (3).
Wewill derive the formula (5)for thenewareaelement in thenextsection;fornow lets
checkthatitworksforpolarcoordinates.
Example 1. Verify (1)usingthe general formulas (5)and (6).
Solution. Using (2),wecalculate:
(x, y)
=
x
r
x

=
cos r sin
=r(cos
2
+sin
2
) =r ,
(r, ) y
r
y

sin r cos
sothatdA =r dr d, accordingto (5)and (6);note thatwecanomit theabsolutevalue,
sincebyconvention,inintegrationproblemswealwaysassumer 0,asisimpliedalready
bytheequations (2).
Wenowworkanexampleillustratingwhythegeneralformulaisneededandhowitis
used;itillustratesstepC alsoputtinginthenewlimitsofintegration.
1

2
x y
-1
Example 2. Evaluate dxdy overtheregionR pictured.
x +y +2
R
Solution. Thiswould bea painful integraltoworkout inrectangularcoordinates.
-1
Buttheregionisboundedbythelines
(8) x +y =1, x y =1
andtheintegrandalsocontainsthecombinationsx y andx+y.These powerfullysuggest
thatthe integralwill besimplied bythechangeofvariable (we give italso inthe inverse
direction,bysolvingtherstpairofequationsforx andy):
u +v u v
(9) u =x +y, v =x y; x = , y = .
2 2
We willalso need the new area element;using (5)and (9)above.we get
(x, y)

1/2 1/2

1
(10) =

= ;
(u, v)

1/2 1/2

2
note that it is thesecond pairofequations in (9)thatwereused,not theones introducing
u andv.Thus thenewareaelement is (this timewe doneedtheabsolutevaluesign in (6))
1
(11) dA = dudv .
2
WenowcombinestepsA andB togetthenewdoubleintegral;substitutingintothe
integrand byusingtherst pair ofequations in (9), we get

2

2
x y v 1
(12) dxdy = dudv .
x +y +2 u +2 2
R R
1
3 CHANGING VARIABLES IN MULTIPLE INTEGRALS
Inuv-coordinates,theboundaries(8)oftheregionaresimplyu =1, v =1,sothe
integral (12)becomes

2

1

1

2
v 1 v 1
dudv = dudv
u +2 2 u +2 2
R 1 1
Wehave
v
2

u=1
v
2
v
3

1
2
= . innerintegral = = ; outerintegral =
2(u +2)
u=1
3 9
1
9
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu
18.02SC Multivariable Calculus
Fall 2010
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