Analyzing the Setup
To find the area of the region trapped between the parabola x=2y2 and the line x=y+4, we must first determine the points of intersection. At these points, the x-coordinates are identical.
Setting the equations equal to each other, we have:
Multiplying by 2 to clear the fraction yields y2=2y+8. Rearranging this into the standard quadratic form, we obtain:
Factoring the quadratic gives (y−4)(y+2)=0. This reveals our vertical limits of integration: y=4 and y=−2.
The Elegance of the Integral
We choose to integrate with respect to y because the right boundary is consistently the line x=y+4 and the left boundary is consistently the parabola x=2y2. This allows us to calculate the area using a single integral.
The area A is defined by the integral of the difference between the right and left boundaries:
The Final Calculation
We perform the integration term by term:
∫(y+4−2y2)dy=[2y2+4y−6y3]−24
Evaluating at the upper limit y=4:
216+16−664=8+16−332=24−332=340
Evaluating at the lower limit y=−2:
24−8−6−8=2−8+34=−6+34=−314
Subtracting the lower limit from the upper limit, we find the total area:
The area of the region is exactly 18 square units.