Rotate an ellipse with positive semiaxes about an axis a distance from its centre. For the parametrized surface , put and . An outward unit normal is . Direct differentiation gives the first fundamental form and second fundamental form, with the convention :
Reversing the unit normal reverses , but the Gaussian curvature is unchanged.
For projection of a planar region with unit normal onto a plane with unit normal , the projected area is times the original area. Indeed, the signed projected area of the parallelogram spanned by tangent vectors is , while is parallel to . Taking magnitudes proves the factor. The same pointwise formula applies to a parametrized surface; adding projected patches counts multiplicity unless their images overlap only in sets of zero area.
Parameter domain 2026-10-24
The domain of a function used by a parametrization is its parameter domain. A parametrized surface may require several such domains, and duplicated images must be accounted for in a surface integral.
For a regular parametrized surface , the first fundamental form is the induced metric
Choose the unit normal . With the convention , the second fundamental form is
The Gaussian curvature, the product of the principal curvatures, is
For a compact smooth embedded surface without boundary, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem gives
where is the Euler characteristic. The no-boundary condition is needed for this form; a smooth embedded surface with boundary has the additional boundary geodesic curvature integral.
For the surface of revolution, use
The parameters are periodic, with local open parameter rectangles providing the coordinate charts. Put and . Since and , both and are positive. The tangent vectors are
Their inner products are , , and . Thus
Their cross product is , so its normalization gives the outward unit normal
Next,
Taking their inner products with yields , , and . Hence the fundamental forms of an elliptic ring torus give
Choosing the inward unit normal changes both displayed coefficients of to their negatives and leaves and unchanged. As a consistency check, ; its integral over the torus is zero, since cancels under . This agrees with in the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.
Differentiate the position vector with respect to each of the spherical polar coordinates. The derivatives are
Their lengths give the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates:
Dividing the derivatives by these lengths yields
Each has unit length. For example, ; the other two dot products vanish because their first two terms cancel. Thus these are mutually orthogonal vectors, and the total differential has the required form. The coordinates degenerate at and on the polar axis, but this does not affect an area integral.
On the parametrized surface , use as parameters. The surface integral area element is
For , its lateral area, with no closing disk, is therefore
At the surface collapses to a line and its area is zero.
Take the normal vector outward from the cylinder-and-cone solid. The surface consists of the cylindrical side and conical roof, with no bottom disk; this convention fixes the otherwise unspecified orientation of a surface. The boundary is the radius-two circle at . Reversing every normal vector reverses the final sign.
Figure 1.
Outward-oriented cylindrical side and conical roof, with the open bottom circle as the sole boundary
. Details.
For , its curl is . For the cylindrical parametrized surface, use , with , and use as the outward area vector. Its flux is
For the cone, let , and . Its outward area vector is . Thus
The total surface integral is therefore with the outward convention, or for the opposite convention.
For Stokes theorem, the induced bottom-circle orientation is counterclockwise as viewed from above, opposite to the orientation of an outward bottom cap. Use with increasing . Then
agreeing with the two parametrized fluxes. The seam at is internal and cancels between the two pieces; the cone tip does not supply another boundary curve.
Differentiate the parametrized surface. The coefficients of the first fundamental form simplify to
If , then . Moreover
Thus the second-fundamental-form coefficients satisfy and . The Gaussian curvature is consequently
At a regular point of the parametrized surface, the partial derivatives and are linearly independent tangent vectors. Their cross product gives a nonzero normal vector:
Dividing by its Euclidean norm gives a unit normal; changing the sign chooses the opposite orientation. If the cross product vanishes, this parametrization is singular there and cannot determine a normal vector by this formula.
The partial derivatives of this parametrized surface are
Their cross product is
The mixed terms cancel in its squared Euclidean norm:
Since , the surface area element is . There is no repeated coverage: recovers , and then recovers . Therefore the surface area is
Choose the outward orientation on the upper half of the ellipsoid, giving counterclockwise boundary orientation on as viewed from . Parametrize the boundary circle by
Then , so the line integral is
For a direct surface integral, use the parametrized surface
Its outward vector surface element is supplied by the cross product
Using the curl from a,
The two integrals agree for every , verifying the Stokes theorem. Only the vertical component of the vector surface element enters, which explains the absence of in the answer.
Let be the filled projected ellipse. The part of the plane bounded by is the parametrized surface
Its tangent vectors satisfy
The surface area is therefore
This also illustrates the orthogonal projection area formula: the unit normal to the plane has vertical component , so projection multiplies area by .
For a regular parametrized surface that covers its image once, up to sets of zero area, its surface area is
The integrand is the area element of a surface, the area of the small parallelogram spanned by the two tangent vectors. A parametrization that covers a region more than once counts that multiplicity; the geometric surface area requires a single covering or a division into nonoverlapping patches.
For the parametrized surface in i,
These tangent vectors are orthogonal, and their Euclidean norms are and , respectively. Their cross product therefore has Euclidean norm . Integration gives
This is the lateral surface area of a conical frustum, with no end disks included.
Interpolate the radius and height by
A parametrized surface for the conical frustum is
The strict positivity of gives . Since , the height identifies uniquely; the angle then identifies a point of each circle uniquely modulo . Hence this covers the lateral surface of revolution once. If , it is the lateral surface of a circular cylinder.
Smooth embedded surface 2026-10-14
A smooth embedded surface in is a two-dimensional smooth manifold locally represented by an injective regular parametrized surface , with . The first fundamental form measures lengths and angles, and a choice of unit normal determines the second fundamental form, which measures bending. A surface with boundary additionally uses local half-plane charts along its boundary.
Surface area of a surface of revolution Created 2026-10-25 Updated 2026-10-31
For the radial profile , with , use the parametrized surface , . The two tangent vectors are orthogonal and have Euclidean norms and . Their cross product gives the displayed surface area. Geometric surface area assumes a single covering of the radial profile. A general three-dimensional generating curve must first be replaced by its actual radius ; its spatial arc length cannot simply replace the radial profile's arc length.