Section 16.

4: Green’s Theorem
(This explanation has been adapted from http://mathinsight.org/greens_theorem_idea.)

If C is an oriented closed curve, the line integral of the vector field 𝐹𝐹⃑ around C is called the circulation
of 𝐹𝐹⃑ around C. In some texts you will see a special integral symbol, ∮ 𝐹𝐹⃑ ∙ 𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑟⃑, used to denote the closed
𝐶𝐶
nature of C.
In the figure below, C is a positively oriented closed curve enclosing a planar region D. We say C is
positively oriented when the region D stays on our left as we follow C in the direction indicated by the
arrows.

If 𝐹𝐹⃑ (𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦) = 𝑃𝑃𝚤𝚤⃗ + 𝑄𝑄𝚥𝚥⃗ were a velocity field for water flow, ∮𝐶𝐶 𝐹𝐹⃑ ∙ 𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑟⃑ = ∫𝐶𝐶 𝑃𝑃 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + 𝑄𝑄 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 would measure
how much water tends to circulate around the closed path C in the direction corresponding to C’s
orientation. We could compute this line integral directly, but we’ll see in a moment that Green’s
Theorem gives us another option for the case where 𝐹𝐹⃑ is a 2-dimensional vector field and C is a
piecewise-smooth, simple closed curve in the plane.

To understand the intuition behind Green’s Theorem, think of

∮ 𝐹𝐹⃑ ∙ 𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑟⃑ = ∫ 𝑃𝑃 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + 𝑄𝑄 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 as the “macroscopic” circulation of 𝐹𝐹⃑
𝐶𝐶 𝐶𝐶
around C. Define the “microscopic circulation” at a point (𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦)
existing in D as the measure of how much circulation 𝐹𝐹⃑ induces
around a tiny closed curve centered at (𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦). We could picture
these microscopic circulations as a bunch of small closed curves (shown in green), where each curve
represents the tendency for the vector field to circulate at that location.

If we superimpose a grid on our microscopic circulations, notice that

the opposing orientations on all of the interior boundaries cause those
contributions to the overall circulation to cancel out.

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Green’s Theorem says that if you add up all the microscopic circulations inside D, then that sum is
exactly the same as the macroscopic circulation around C. “Adding up” the microcirculations in D
mathematically means taking the double integral of the microscopic circulation over D.

If the region D stays on our left as we traverse C in

the orientation indicated, we say that C has
positive orientation (see the images at right). We
can apply Green’s Theorem in the case of a
negatively oriented curve by negating our result.

Exercise 1: Consider ∮𝐶𝐶 𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + 𝑥𝑥 2 𝑦𝑦 3 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 where C is the triangle with vertices (0,0), (1,0), (1,2).
D is the region bounded by C. Is each statement below true or false?
a. C is a piecewise smooth, simple closed curve in the plane. True False

b. We can claim C is positively oriented. True False

c. P and Q have continuous partial derivatives. True False

𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕
d. 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕
and 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 are defined on an open region that contains D. True False

e. Green’s Theorem applies to this scenario. True False

Exercise 2: Evaluate ∮𝐶𝐶 𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + 𝑥𝑥 2 𝑦𝑦 3 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 where C is the triangle with vertices (0,0), (1,0), (1,2).

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Exercise 3: Use Green’s Theorem to evaluate ∮𝐶𝐶 (1 − 𝑦𝑦 3 )𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + (𝑥𝑥 3 + 𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑦 ) 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 where C is the
boundary of the region between the circles 𝑥𝑥 2 + 𝑦𝑦 2 = 4 , and 𝑥𝑥 2 + 𝑦𝑦 2 = 9, oriented positively.

Exercise 4: Use Green’s Theorem to evaluate ∮𝐶𝐶 𝐹𝐹⃑ ∙ 𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑟⃑ , where

𝐹𝐹⃗ (𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦) = 〈𝑦𝑦 cos 𝑥𝑥 − 𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 sin 𝑥𝑥 , 𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 + 𝑥𝑥 cos 𝑥𝑥〉 and C is the triangle from (0,0) to (0,4) to (2,0) to (0,0).

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Exercise 5: The term centroid refers to the center of mass of an object with uniform density. Let D be a
region of uniform density bounded by a simple closed path C in the xy-plane. The coordinates of the
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centroid of D are given by 𝑥𝑥̅ = 2𝐴𝐴 ∮𝐶𝐶 𝑥𝑥 2 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 and 𝑦𝑦� = − 2𝐴𝐴 ∮𝐶𝐶 𝑦𝑦 2 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 , where A is the area of D. Use these
formulas to find the centroid of a quarter-circular region of radius a located in the first quadrant.