Ellipses

An ellipse is a plane curve that results from intersecting a cone with a plane, as shown in the image below.

Like a circle, an ellipse has a center. But where a circle has a diameter that is the same length, regardless of how its oriented, an ellipse has different length diameters depending on its orientation. (Recall that a diameter of a circle is a line that connects two points on a circle and passes through the circles center.) The largest diameter of an ellipse falls on what is called the major axis. The smallest diameter falls on what is called the minor axis. 1. What is the measure of the major axis of the ellipse below? What is the measure of the minor axis?

x h ) (y k ) In general, the standard form for the equation of an ellipse is ( +

2

a2

b2

= 1 , where the

point (x, y) is any point on the ellipse, (h, k) is the center of the ellipse, a is half the measure of the horizontal axis (diameter) of the ellipse, and b is half the measure of the vertical axis (diameter) of the ellipse.

2. Suppose you are given the equation that determines an ellipse. a. Determine the center of the ellipse.

b. Determine the measure of the major and minor axis of the ellipse.

c. Sketch the ellipse on the axes below.

A circle is often is traced out by a point distance from a given center) is constant.

defined as a curve that that moves so that its point (the circles The constant distance

between a circles center and any point on the circle is called a radius. An ellipse, however, has two focal points and two radii as illustrated below. The two focal points (or foci) are located on the longest (or major) diameter of the ellipse and are equidistant from the vertex of the ellipse. The length of each of the radii can vary, but the sum of their lengths is always equal to a constant. That constant is equal to the length of the major axis (the distance from (0, b) to (0, -b) in the above image). Recalling the ellipse from Question 1, we can see this characteristic of the ellipse:

Notice that the sum of the radii in both diagrams is equal to 10, the length of the vertical diameter of the ellipse. This will be true of the sum of the radii for any point along the circumference of the ellipse. 3. In the left ellipse above, the length of the line segments are given to be 5. Verify this using the Pythagorean theorem.

For any values of a, b, and c in an ellipse, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to say that , where b is half the length of the major axis, a is half the length of the minor axis, and c is the distance from the vertex to the foci.

a.

4. Suppose you know the center of an ellipse is at the point (1, 2), that the major axis (which is the vertical axis) is 12 units and the minor axis is 6 units. (Note that this ellipse is NOT centered at (0,0) as in the example above) Determine the distance of the foci from the vertex.

b.

Determine the coordinate points of the foci.

5. Suppose you are given the equation of for an ellipse. a. Determine the center of the ellipse.

b. Determine major and minor c. Sketch the below.

the measure of the axis of the ellipse. ellipse on the axes

d. Determine the foci of the ellipse.

6. Suppose you are given the following graph of an ellipse.

a. Determine the center, measure of the major and minor axis, and the foci of the ellipse.

b. Write the equation of the ellipse in standard form. There are times when the equation of an ellipse is not given in standard form. When this is the case, we must convert the equation into standard form, using the method of completing the square. For example, suppose we are given the equation of an ellipse as . Here are the steps we would take to re-write the equation in standard form:

1,2 ), the horizontal axis is 6, and the In this form, we can see that the vertex of the ellipse is at ( vertical axis is 4. From this, we can see that the point (-2, -2) and the point (4, -2) are at the ends of the major axes and the points (1, 0) and (1, -4) are at the ends of the minor axis. Lastly, we can determine the foci of the ellipse by determining the value of c, given that . We see that The foci of the ellipse are . The graph of the ellipse then looks like:

7. Given that the equation of an ellipse is given to be , re-write the equation in standard form. Determine the vertex, major and minor axes, foci points, and create a sketch of the ellipse on the axes below.

8. a. Activity: On the set of axes below, place a push pin into the points (3, 0) and (-3,0). Next, tie a string 10 units long (after being tied) into a loose loop around the two pins. Pull the loop taut

with the pen's tip, so as to form a triangle. Move and trace the pen completely around the pins, while keeping the string taut.

b. What shape have you formed? c. At what point is the center of this object? What points are those farthest from the center on both the x and y axes? d. The two points where the pins are located are called focal points (or foci). These are discussed in more detail in other sections of the worksheet.