Volume of a solid involving integration by parts.

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Find the volume of the solid generated by revolving the region in the first quadrant bounded by the coordinate axes, the curve $y=e^x$ and the line $x=\ln 5$, rotated about the line $x= \ln 5$

Here is my work:

$$V= 2\pi \int _{a}^{b}(\text{shell radius})(\text {shell height})dx$$ $$V= 2\pi \int _{0}^{\ln 5}(x)(e^x)dx$$ $$u=x\,; du=dx\,\,\,\,\,dv=e^xdx\,;v=e^x$$

Using the integration by parts formula: $\int udv = uv-\int vdu$

$$2\pi [ xe^x|_{0}^{\ln 5} - \int_{0}^{\ln 5}e^xdx]$$ $$2\pi [ xe^x|_{0}^{\ln 5} - e^x|_{0}^{\ln 5}]$$ $$2\pi [(\ln 5)5 - (5-1)]$$ $$2\pi [5\ln 5 - 4]$$

This was the answer I got but the answer on the online homework says the correct answer is $2\pi(4-\ln5)$. Are these two answers equivalent or did I do something wrong? Any help is appreciated!

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1 Answer

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The radius of the shell at $x$ isn’t $x$: that’s the distance to the $y$-axis, and you’re not revolving the region about the $y$-axis. The distance from the shell at $x$ to the axis at $\ln 5$ is $\ln 5-x$. The rest of your integral is fine, so you should have

$$2\pi\int_0^{\ln 5}(\ln 5-x)e^x\,dx\;.$$

Note that all you have to do now is compute

$$2\pi\ln 5\int_0^{\ln 5}e^x\,dx$$

and combine it properly with the erroneous value that you already calculated.

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