UNIT 8 - OBJECTIVE 3 - THE ELLIPSE

		An ellipse is the set of points in a plane that have the sum of their distances from two points a constant. 
		Each of the fixed point is called focus. They are the foci of the ellipse.
   	               With the center at the origin , the standard form is :
 		 a>b


		

		To find the foci use the equation:
		
		     a>b
		

		To find the foci use the equation
		

		EXAMPLE 1
		Sketch the ellipse
		

		(This is an ellipse because the coefficient of  are different)

		Divide each term by 9 to get 1 on the right :
		
		
		

		The vertices on the major axis are (0,3/2) and (0,-3/2) . The vertices on the minor axis are (1,0) and (-1,0).
		The foci are on the major axis
		

		So the foci are (0,1.12) and (0,-1.12)

		EXAMPLE 2
		Determine the equation of the ellipse given the vertices (0,2) and (0,-2) on the minor axis and 
		focus=(3,0) with the center at the origin.

		

		

		EXAMPLE 3
		Graph the following ellipse 
		
		
		



Unit 8 Outline // Course Outline // Home Page

		
	Copyright © 1996 by B. Chambers and P. Lowry. All Rights	Reserved.