Question 723537: the graph of the equation below is an ellipse. How long is the major axis of the ellipse given by the equation? (x+7)^2 5^2 + (y-4)^2 8^2= 1
Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! If the equation is really the major and minor axes are not very long.

When the second term is 
and you get the extreme values for x:
--> --> or ,
which can be summarized as 
So the horizontal axis would be in length, the distance between those two extreme points. That is the major axis, the longest one.
The ends of the shorter vertical axis can be found for where ,
which makes the length of that axis .
If the equation was instead,
the ends of the horizontal axis would still be at ,
but with ,
and the ends of the vertical axis would still be at ,
but with .
The length of the axes would be
for the shorter, horizontal, minor axis,
and for the longer, vertical, major axis.
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