Arkansas Tech University

MATH 2934: Calculus III

Dr. Marcel B. Finan
22 The Denite Integral of f(x, y)
In this section, we introduce the concept of denite integral of a function of
two variables over a rectangular region.
By a rectangular region we mean a region R as shown in Figure 22.1(I).
Figure 22.1
Let f(x, y) be a continuous function on R. Our denition of the denite
integral of f over the rectangle R will follow the denition from one variable
calculus. Partition the interval a x b into n equal subintervals using
the mesh points a x
0
< x
1
< x
2
< < x
n1
< x
n
= b with x =
ba
n
denoting the length of each subinterval. Similarly, partition c y d into
m subintervals using the mesh points c = y
0
< y
1
< y
2
< < y
m1
<
y
m
= d with y =
dc
m
denoting the length of each subinterval. This way,
the rectangle R is partitioned into mn subrectangles each of area equals to
xy as shown in Figure 22.1(II).
Let D
ij
be a typical rectangle. Let m
ij
be the smallest value of f in D
ij
and
M
ij
be the largest value in D
ij
. Pick a point (x

i
, y

j
) in this rectangle. Then
we can write
m
ij
xy f(x

i
, y

j
)xy M
ij
xy.
Sum over all i and j to obtain
m

j=1
n

i=1
m
ij
xy
m

j=1
n

i=1
f(x

i
, y

j
)xy
m

j=1
n

i=1
M
ij
xy.
1
We call
L =
m

j=1
n

i=1
m
ij
xy
the lower Riemann sum and
U =
m

j=1
n

i=1
M
ij
xy
the upper Riemann sum. If
lim
m,n
L = lim
m,n
U
then we write

R
f(x, y)dxdy = lim
m,n
m

j=1
n

i=1
f(x

i
, y

j
)xy
and we call

R
f(x, y)dxdy the double integral of f over the rectangle R.
The use of the word double will be justied in Section 23.
Double Integral as Volume Under a Surface
Just as the denite integral of a positive one-variable function can be inter-
preted as area, so the double integral of a positive two-variable function can
be interpreted as a volume.
Let f(x, y) > 0 with surface S shown in Figure 22.2(I). Partition the rect-
angle R as above. Over each rectangle D
ij
we will construct a box whose
height is given by f(x

i
, y

j
) as shown in Figure 22.2 (II). Each of the boxes
has a base area of xy and a height of f(x

i
, y

j
) so the volume of each
of these boxes is f(x

i
, y

j
)xy. So the volume under the surface S is then
approximately,
V
m

j=1
n

i=1
f(x

i
, y

j
)xy.
As the number of subdivisions grows, the tops of the boxes approximate the
surface better, and the volume of the boxes gets closer and closer to the
volume under the graph of the function. Thus, we have the following result:
If f(x, y) > 0 then the volume under the graph of f above the region R is

R
f(x, y)dxdy
2
Figure 22.2
Double Integral as Area
If we choose a function f(x, y) = 1 everywhere in R then our integral be-
comes:
Area of R =

R
1dxdy
That is, when f(x, y) = 1, the integral gives us the area of the region we are
integrating over.
Example 22.1
Use the Riemann sum with n = 3, m = 2 and sample point the upper right
corner of each subrectangle to estimate the volume under z = xy and above
the rectangle 0 x 6, 0 y 4.
Solution.
The interval on the xaxis is to be divided into n = 3 subintervals of equal
length, so x =
60
3
= 2. Likewise, the interval on the yaxis is to be divided
into m = 2 subintervals, also with width y = 2; and the rectangle is divided
into six squares with sides 2.
Next, the upper right corners are at (2, 2), (4, 2) and (6, 2), for the lower
three squares, and (2, 4), (4, 4) and (6, 4), for the upper three squares. The
approximation is then
[f(2, 2) +f(4, 2) +f(6, 2))+f(2, 4) +f(4, 4) +f(6, 4)] 2 2
=[4 + 8 + 12 + 8 + 16 + 24] 4 = 72 4 = 288
3
Example 22.2
Values of f(x, y) are given in the table below. Let R be the rectangle 0
x 1.2, 2 y 2.4. Find Riemann sums which are reasonable over- and
under-estimates for

R
f(x, y)dxdy with x = 0.1 and y = 0.2
y\ x 1.0 1.1 1.2
2.0 5 7 10
2.2 4 6 8
2.4 3 5 4
Solution.
We mark the values of the function on the plane, as shown in Figure 22.3, so
that we can guess respectively at the smallest and largest value the function
takes on each subrectangle.
Figure 22.3
Lower sum = (4 + 6 + 3 + 4)xy = (17)(0.1)(0.2) = 0.34
Upper sum = (7 + 10 + 6 + 8)xy = (31)(0.1)(0.2) = 0.62
Integral Over Bounded Regions That Are Not Rectangles
The region of integration R can be of any bounded shape not just rectangles.
In our presentation above we chose a rectangular shaped region for conve-
nience since it makes the summation limits and partitioning of the xyplane
into squares or rectangles simpler. However, this need not be the case. We
can instead picture covering an arbitrary shaped region in the xyplane with
rectangles so that either all the rectangles lie just inside the region or the
rectangles extend just outside the region (so that the region is contained
inside our rectangles) as shown in Figure 22.4. We can then compute the
4
minimum and maximum value of the function on each rectangle, nd the
lower and upper Riemann sums and average the two sums.
Figure 22.4
Integration over non-rectangular regions will be discussed in later sections.
The Average of f(x, y)
As in the case of single variable calculus, the average value of f(x, y) over
a region R is dened by
1
Area of R

R
f(x, y)dxdy.
Example 22.3
Estimate the average value of f(x, y) in Example 22.2.
Solution.
We have
1
Area of R

R
f(x, y)dxdy
1
(0.2)(0.4)

0.34 + 0.62
2
= 6
5