9.

2 Ellipses

Objectives
Write equations of ellipses in standard form. Use properties of ellipses to model and solve real-life problems. Find eccentricities of ellipses.

The Reflective property of an ellipse is simply this: when a ray leaves one of the foci and meets a point on that ellipse, it will reflect off of the ellipse and pass through the other focus. Both light and sound are affected in this way. In fact there are many famous buildings designed to exploit this property. Such buildings are referred to as whisper galleries or whisper chambers. St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England was designed by architect and mathematician Sir Christopher Wren and contains one such whisper gallery. The effect that such a room creates is that if one person is standing at one of the foci, a person standing at the other focus can hear even the slightest whisper spoken by the other.

If we defined an ellipse by points: An ellipse is the set of all points (x,y) in a plane, the sum of whose distances from two fixed points (foci) is constant.

Vertical and Horizontal Orientations of an Ellipse

The foci are c units from the center To locate the foci use

c a b
2 2

Finding the Standard Equation of an Ellipse

Given: foci at (0,1) and (4,1) and a major axis of length 6.

Given: foci at (0,1) and (0,8) and a major axis of length 16.

Sketching an Ellipse
Sketch an ellipse given by 4 x 2 y 2 36 and identify the vertices.

Sketch an ellipse given by 4 x 2 9 y 2 36 and identify the vertices.

Sketching an Ellipse
Sketch the graph of the ellipse

x 2 4 y 2 6x 8 y 9 0

Sketch the graph of the ellipse

9 x 2 4 y 2 36 x 24 y 36 0

Analyzing an Ellipse

Find the center, vertices, and foci of the ellipse 2 2 4 x y 8x 4 y 8 0

Find the center, vertices, and foci of the ellipse

6 x 2 2 y 2 18 x 10 y 2 0

Eccentricity of an Ellipse