Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 16 - Review - Exercises - Page 1149: 23

Answer

The line integral $\int_Cf_y dx-f_x dy$ is independent of the path in any simple region $D$

Work Step by Step

We need to show that $\int_Cf_y dx-f_x dy=0$, which is independent of the path. Here, $f$ is a harmonic function. Green's Theorem states that $\int_C Adx+B dy=\iint_D (\dfrac{\partial B}{\partial x}-\dfrac{\partial A}{\partial y})dA$ Here, $D$ is the region enclosed inside the counter-clockwise oriented loop $C$. Here, we have $\nabla^2 f=0 \implies \nabla(\nabla f)=0$ This gives: $\dfrac{\partial^2 f}{\partial x^2}+\dfrac{\partial^2 f}{\partial y^2}=0$ ....(1) Now, we have $\int_Cf_y dx+(-f_x) dy=\iint_D (\dfrac{\partial f_x}{\partial x}-\dfrac{\partial (-f_y)}{\partial y})dA=\iint_D(\dfrac{\partial^2 f}{\partial x^2}+\dfrac{\partial^2 f}{\partial y^2})dA $ From the equation (1), we have $\int_Cf_y dx-f_x dy=\iint_D (0)dA=0$ We can conclude that the line integral $\int_Cf_y dx-f_x dy$ is independent of the path in any simple region $D$ Hence, the result has been proved.
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