Tweet
Here is a spreadsheet (pending link approval) for finding the area of a region bounded by a curve. The method used is Gaussian quadrature. It may seem strange to anyone who hasn't studied calculus, but it does work.
It is for regions bounded by smooth curves.
You measure the length all the way across, and the spreadsheet tells you where to measure the heights. You then measure those 7 heights, and the spreadsheet gives you the area.
The accuracy is incredible. I tried this on a circle whose area is pi, and got 3.146. That's a 0.2% with only 7 measurements.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B54...2ZTBk&hl=en_US
It is for regions bounded by smooth curves.
You measure the length all the way across, and the spreadsheet tells you where to measure the heights. You then measure those 7 heights, and the spreadsheet gives you the area.
The accuracy is incredible. I tried this on a circle whose area is pi, and got 3.146. That's a 0.2% with only 7 measurements.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B54...2ZTBk&hl=en_US
Comment