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lesson 8a

This document covers the properties and equations of ellipses, including how to write their equations in standard form and solve real-life problems involving them. It provides examples of finding the standard equation of an ellipse, sketching it, and applying these concepts to elliptical orbits, such as the moon's orbit around Earth. Additionally, it introduces the concept of eccentricity to measure the ovalness of an ellipse.

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2 views

lesson 8a

This document covers the properties and equations of ellipses, including how to write their equations in standard form and solve real-life problems involving them. It provides examples of finding the standard equation of an ellipse, sketching it, and applying these concepts to elliptical orbits, such as the moon's orbit around Earth. Additionally, it introduces the concept of eccentricity to measure the ovalness of an ellipse.

Uploaded by

brightonodhiambo645
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What You Should Learn

• Objectives

• Write equations of ellipses in standard form.

• Use properties of ellipses to model and solve


real-life problems.

• Find eccentricities of ellipses.


Lesson 8(b) Ellipses
Introduction
Introduction

(a)
Figure 9.15
Introduction
The line through the foci intersects the ellipse at two points
called vertices. The chord joining the vertices is the major
axis, and its midpoint is the center of the ellipse. The chord
perpendicular to the major axis at the center is the minor
axis. [See Figure 9.15(b).]

(b)
Figure 9.15
Introduction
You can visualize the definition of an ellipse by imagining
two thumbtacks placed at the foci, as shown in Figure 9.16.

Figure 9.16

If the ends of a fixed length of string are fastened to the


thumbtacks and the string is drawn taut with a pencil, then
the path traced by the pencil will be an ellipse.
Introduction
Introduction
Figure 9.18 shows both the vertical and horizontal
orientations for an ellipse.

Major axis is horizontal. Major axis is vertical.

Figure 9.18
Example 1 – Finding the Standard Equation of an Ellipse

Example: Find the standard form of the equation of the


ellipse having foci at
(0, 1) and (4, 1)

and a major axis of length 6, as shown in Figure 9.19.

Figure 9.19
Example 1 – Solution
By the Midpoint Formula, the center of the ellipse is (2, 1)
and the distance from the center to one of the foci is c = 2.

Because 2a = 6, you know that a = 3. Now, from


c2 = a2 – b2, you have

Because the major axis is horizontal, the standard equation


is
Example 2 – Sketching an Ellipse
Sketch the ellipse given by

4x2 + y2 = 36

and identify the center and vertices.

Solution (start by writing the equation in standard form):


4x2 + y2 = 36 Write original equation.

Divide each side by 36.

Write in standard form.


Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Example2: The center of the ellipse is (0, 0). Because the


denominator of the y2-term is larger than the denominator
of the x2-term, you can conclude that the major axis is
vertical.

Moreover, because a = 6 the vertices are (0, –6) and (0, 6).
Finally, because b = 3, the endpoints of the minor axis are
(–3, 0) and (3, 0) as shown in Figure 9.20.

Figure 9.20
Example 5 – An Application Involving an Elliptical Orbit

Example: The moon travels about Earth in an elliptical orbit


with Earth at one focus, as shown in Figure 9.24. The major
and minor axes of the orbit have lengths
of 768,800 kilometers and
767,640 kilometers, respectively.

Find the greatest and least


distances (the apogee and perigee)
from Earth’s center to the moon’s
center.

Figure 9.24
Example 5 – Solution
Because 2a = 768,800 and 2b = 767,640, you have

a = 384,400 and b = 383,820

which implies that

 21,108
Example 5 – Solution cont’d

So, the greatest distance between the center of Earth and


the center of the moon is

a + c  384,400 + 21,108

= 405,508 kilometers

and the least distance is

a – c  384,400 – 21,108

= 363,292 kilometers.
Eccentricity
Eccentricity
One of the reasons it was difficult for early astronomers to
detect that the orbits of the planets are ellipses is that the
foci of the planetary orbits are relatively close to their
centers, and so the orbits are nearly circular.

To measure the ovalness of an ellipse, you can use the


concept of eccentricity.

Note that 0 < e < 1 for every ellipse.

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