Conic Sections: Ellipses: Example 2: Vertical Ellipse

about 3 years ago (Edited)

In this video I go over another example on conic sections and ellipses, and this time look at determining the equation of an ellipse when we are given the foci (plural for focus) and the vertices. In this particular example, since the foci (0 , +/- 2) and vertices (0 , +/- 3) are on the y-axis, we obtain a vertical ellipse. Thus we use the formula for an ellipse that involves the a² term below the y² term: x²/b² + y²/a² = 1. Then all we need to use the definition of b² = a² – c² from my derivation video for ellipses, to get b² = 5. Note that b corresponds to the end points on the minor axis of the ellipses, whereas the vertices correspond to the end points on the major axis. From here we get the ellipse x²/5 + y²/9 = 1 or 9x² + 5y² = 45. This is a simple but very detailed look at determining the equation of a vertical or inverted ellipse so make sure to watch this video!

Download the notes in my video: https://1drv.ms/b/s!As32ynv0LoaIhvlL0Dro9YGOWlSH2g

View video notes on the Hive blockchain: https://peakd.com/mathematics/@mes/video-notes-conic-sections-ellipses-example-2-vertical-ellipse