The area of a single petal/leaf of a rose curve

areaintegrationmultivariable-calculuspolar coordinates

The function given is $r=12\cos(3\theta)$, the graph of this function shows a $3$ petal/leaf rose. Now one way to find the area of a single petal is to do $\frac{1}{3}\int_{0}^{2π}\int_{0}^{12\cos(3\theta)} r drd\theta$ this gives the value $24\pi$
another way which should give the same value is $2 \int_{0}^{\pi/6}\int_{0}^{12\cos(3\theta)} r drd\theta$
but this equals $12\pi$.
What is wrong here?

Best Answer

The following animation (created with PSTricks) might be useful for finding the integration interval.

enter image description here

For the former, you have to change the interval of the outer integral as follows. \begin{align} A&=\frac{1}{3}\int_0^\pi\int_0^{12\cos 3\theta} r\,\mathrm{d}r\,\mathrm{d}\theta\\ &=12\pi \end{align}