Our newest topic is finding the volume of a solid created when a curve is rotated around an axis. We spent the last week learning two methods called The Disc Method and The Washer Method before we took the second trimester exam. Those two methods were included on the exam, and they really weren't hard to understand. That left the third method, The Shell Method, for us to learn the first week of the new trimester.
The Shell Method is even more simple than the first two methods we learned for finding the volume of a solid created when a curve is rotated around an axis. The only challenging part for me is understanding when I need to put things in terms of x or y. For The Disc Method and The Washer Method, if you're rotating the curve around the x-axis, your equations should be in terms of x, and if you're rotating the curve around the y-axis, your equations should be in terms of y. For The Shell Method, it's the opposite. It's taking me time to not mix these up, but it's not a difficult topic to understand.
The Shell Method is even more simple than the first two methods we learned for finding the volume of a solid created when a curve is rotated around an axis. The only challenging part for me is understanding when I need to put things in terms of x or y. For The Disc Method and The Washer Method, if you're rotating the curve around the x-axis, your equations should be in terms of x, and if you're rotating the curve around the y-axis, your equations should be in terms of y. For The Shell Method, it's the opposite. It's taking me time to not mix these up, but it's not a difficult topic to understand.