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Question 139154: Can someone please help me with this problem. I have no idea where to even start. I would really appriciate all the help I can get. This problem is from a work sheet from my perfessor.
A satellite has an elliptical orbit around the earth with ones focus at the earth's center, E. The earth's radius is 4,000 miles, the highest point that the satellite is from the surface of the earth is 800 miles, and the lowest is 200 miles. Find the eccentricity of the satellite's orbit.
Answer by scott8148(6628)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! eccentricity is a measure of how far "out of round" an ellipse is
__ a circle has an eccentricity of zero
to calculate the eccentricity, divide the distance between the foci by the length of the major axis
the major axis is 8000+800+200 or 9000
since the ellipse is symmetric, the distance from a focus to the end of the major axis is the same on both sides
__ in this case, 4000+200 or 4200
__ so the distance between the foci is 9000-2(4200) or 600
eccentricity is 600/9000 or approximately .067
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