Question 1065504: An ellipse with center (4, 2) and focus (7, 2) is tangent to the y-axis. Find the length of the minor axis.
Answer by KMST(5328)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The major axis,
containing center (4,2) and focus (7,2),
is part of line  .
The focal distance is the distance between center and focus,
 .
There is another focus on the major axis,
with  .
The ellipse looks like this:
 It is tangent to the y-axis
at vertex (0,2) ,
because an ellipse with a horizontal major axis
can only be tangent to a vertical line at a vertex.
So,the semi-major axis length is
the distance from that vertex to the center,
 .
Ŵe know that the length of the semi-minor axis,  ,
is related to  and  by
 .
So, 
 .
So, the length of the minor axis is
 .
|
|
|
