Analyzing the Setup
Imagine you are standing on a coordinate plane, looking at a beautiful, sweeping parabola defined by (y−2)2=x−1. Beside it, a straight line x−2y+4=0 cuts across the landscape.
Your mission is to find the area trapped between these two curves and the positive coordinate axes. This is not just a calculation; it is a story of choosing the right path.
The Intersection
Finding Our Anchor
Before we dive into the calculus, we must know where our boundaries meet. We have the parabola (y−2)2=x−1 and the line x=2y−4.
By substituting the line's expression for x into the parabola, we get:
Expanding this, we find y2−4y+4+1=2y−4, which simplifies to y2−6y+9=0. This is a perfect square: (y−3)2=0.
Thus, our curves intersect at y=3. Plugging this back into our line equation, we find x=2(3)−4=2. Our anchor point is (2,3).
The Strategy
Why dy is Superior
Many students instinctively reach for dx integration. But look at the region. If you integrate with respect to x, the lower boundary changes from the x-axis to the line, requiring two separate integrals.
Instead, let us look at the y-axis. The right boundary is always the parabola, and the left boundary is the y-axis. By integrating with respect to y from 0 to 3, we simplify the problem into one elegant integral.
The Calculation
The Parabola and the Triangle
We calculate the total area under the parabola from y=0 to y=3 using the integral:
The antiderivative is:
Evaluating this from 0 to 3, we get:
This is the area between the parabola and the y-axis. However, our region is bounded by the line, not the y-axis.
We must subtract the triangular area formed by the line and the y-axis. The vertices are (0,2), (2,3), and (0,3).
The base is 1 and the height is 2, so the area is:
Finally, we subtract this triangle from our total: 6−1=5.
The area is 5 square units. You have successfully navigated the geometry, mastered the intersection, and utilized the power of integration to find the truth.