Final answer:
To find the area of the shaded region between the curves y = x^2 - 2x + 1 and y = 5 - x^2, one must determine the intersection points and then calculate the areas using integrals over the intervals from 0 to 2 and from 2 to 3, summing the results.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asked to find the area of the shaded region between the curves y = x^2 - 2x + 1 and y = 5 - x^2. The integral calculus can be used to calculate the area between two curves by integrating the difference of the functions over the given interval. This problem requires the evaluation of two separate integrals, as the curves intersect and create two distinct regions to be calculated.
Since there's a point of intersection, we need to find the x-values where the curves meet, which requires setting the equations equal to each other to solve for x. Subsequently, we would perform the integral of the difference between the upper and lower functions over the relevant x-intervals (0 to 2 and 2 to 3).
To provide a step-by-step solution, first solve for the intersections:
- Set x^2 - 2x + 1 equal to 5 - x^2 and solve for x to find the intersection points.
- Calculate two separate integrals, one from the leftmost intersection to the point where curves switch (0 to 2) and the other from that switching point to the rightmost intersection (2 to 3).
- Find the areas by integrating the upper curve minus the lower curve for each interval and add them together to obtain the total shaded area.
Note that for the interval from 0 to 2, the upper function is 5 - x^2 and the lower is x^2 - 2x + 1, and for 2 to 3, it switches.