Past exam of the mathematical methods II course of the University of Oxford 2019 10 c Solution 2026-10-25
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, and the integrand is . Its integral over the symmetric disc vanishes by oddness:On the top, , so . The graph has , , giving . HenceFor the side, let and parametrize by , with . The surface area element is . ThusAdding all three pieces givesThe tilted top remains above the bottom everywhere because . 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.
Past exam of the mathematical methods II course of the University of Oxford 2021 resit 6 Solution 2026-10-25
For the scalar surface integral over an obliquely cut cylinder, split the scalar surface integral into the curved cylinder and its two planar caps. Write , so the solid has and . On the curved cylinder, use the parametrizationThe surface area element follows fromConsequently the curved contribution isOn either cap , the surface area element is over a radius-two disk. The lower cap has and the upper cap has . Thusand the complete scalar surface integral isThe surface area element is unsigned: opposite outward normals on the caps do not introduce extra minus signs.
Scalar surface integral 2026-10-25
A scalar surface integral integrates a scalar field against the unsigned surface area element. For a regular parametrization , it is . Reversing orientation does not change it. For example, the scalar surface integral of the constant one is the surface area; a signed flux instead integrates the normal component of a vector field.
Let be the full boundary of , , with . The bottom contribution is zero by symmetry. On the top, the integrand is the constant and the surface area element is . On the side, set and integrate in first: the result is . Integrating from zero to gives the displayed scalar surface integral. No orientation signs enter; a scalar area integral is different from a flux.
Let be the whole boundary of , , where and . On the curved cylinder, the parametrization has surface area element and . Each planar cap has area . Summing the side and both caps gives the scalar surface integralThe surface area element is unsigned; cap orientation does not change the signs of the scalar integrand. This separates the geometric area factor from the field values and avoids mistaking a scalar surface integral for a flux.
