Past exam of the mathematical methods II course of the University of Oxford / 2019 / 10 / c / Solution

This is a scalar surface integral, not an oriented flux. Split the whole closed surface into the bottom disc, curved side and tilted top; shared edge curves have zero surface area.

On the bottom, $z=0$ and the integrand is $y$. Its integral over the symmetric disc $x^2+y^2\le 3$ vanishes by oddness:On the top, $z=4-y$, so $y+z=4$. The graph has $z_x=0$, $z_y=-1$, giving $dS=\sqrt{1+z_x^2+z_y^2}dxdy=\sqrt{2}dxdy$. HenceFor the side, let $R=\sqrt{3}$ and parametrize by $(R\cos \varphi ,R\sin \varphi ,z)$, with $0\le z\le 4-R\sin \varphi$. The surface area element is $Rdzd\varphi$. ThusAdding all three pieces givesThe tilted top remains above the bottom everywhere because $4-y\ge 4-\sqrt{3}>0$. The calculation is an instance of a scalar surface integral over a cylinder with one tilted cap; reversing a surface orientation would not change any of its terms.