View Full Version : Gabriel's Horn


allisone417
12-01-05, 01:43 AM
the graph of f(x)=1/x, rotated about the x-axis.

finite volume (?), infinate surface area.
but wouldnt the area of the outer surface = the inner surface? If you filled the horn with paint, wouldnt the inner surface area be covered?

Pete
12-01-05, 09:51 AM
the graph of f(x)=1/x, rotated about the x-axis.

finite volume (?), infinate surface area.
I think that in this case, the volume is also infinite.
But, I think that a horn with finite volume and infinite surface area could exist mathematically.

but wouldnt the area of the outer surface = the inner surface? If you filled the horn with paint, wouldnt the inner surface area be covered?
Yes, and yes... but what's your point?

shmoe
12-01-05, 10:03 AM
f(x)=1/x from [1,infinity) rotated about the x-axis does have finite volume and infinite surface area.

If you have a bucket of 'mathematically perfect paint' then you can fill the horn with a finite volume of this paint. You can also paint it's exterior with this finite 3-d volume of paint with the understanding that my mathematical paint has no thickness when applied to a 2-d surface. Think what removing a 2-d cross section of paint from my bucket does to it's 3-d volume, nothing at all.

If you are thinking of real paint, then it has thickness when applied and therefore a finite volume can't cover an infinite surface. However, this paint couldn't fill the horn either, it'd clog up the works when the horn becomes too thin.

Hector Berlioz
12-01-05, 02:13 PM
shmoe is quite right mathematically speaking any finite amout of "paint" (ideal piant) can expane along a surface becomeing infintesimaly thin covering a sufficently large area, even an infinite area.