A tangent ellipse and a bounded area

Calculus Level 5

An ellipse with a semi-major axis of 5 5 units and a semi-minor axis of 3 3 units, is positioned and oriented such that it is tangent to two rays. The first ray is the positive half of the x x -axis, while the second ray is half of the line y = x y = - x , with x 0 x \le 0 . This is shown in the figure below. The tangency point with the x x -axis is given as ( 2 , 0 ) (2, 0) . Determine this ellipse, then find the area bounded by the two rays and the ellipse (shaded in light blue). If this area is A A , then enter 1000 A \lfloor 1000 A \rfloor .

Note: To determine the ellipse you may need to use the iterative multivariate Newton-Raphson root finding method.


The answer is 725.

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1 solution

Uros Stojkovic
Sep 15, 2019

Very well known equation of ellipse with semi-major and semi-minor axis equal to 5 and 3, respectively, is: x 2 25 + y 2 9 = 1 \frac{x^{2}}{25}+\frac{y^{2}}{9} = 1 This is the equation of ellipse in coordinate system where x and y axis coincide with semi-major and semi-minor axis, respectively, and where center of ellipse coincide with origin of coordinate system. However, when we rotate coordinate axis for some angle θ \theta and translate the origin to some point ( p , q ) (p,q) , the equation of ellipse changes according to these transformations and becomes:

( x p ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + ( y q ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) + 16 225 ( x p ) ( y q ) sin 2 θ = 1 (x-p)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+(y-q)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)+\frac{16}{225}(x-p)(y-q)\sin{2\theta} = 1

Differentiating above equation we get equation involving the slope at some point ( x , y ) (x,y) on ellipse:

d d x [ ( x p ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + ( y q ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) 16 225 ( x p ) ( y q ) sin 2 θ ] = d d x 1 2 ( x p ) ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + 2 ( y q ) d y d x ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) 16 225 ( y q + ( x p ) d y d x ) sin 2 θ = 0 \begin{aligned} \frac{d}{dx}\, \left[(x-p)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+(y-q)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)-\frac{16}{225}(x-p)(y-q)\sin{2\theta}\right] &= \frac{d}{dx}\, 1\\ 2(x-p)\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+2(y-q)\frac{dy}{dx}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)-\frac{16}{225}\left(y-q+(x-p)\frac{dy}{dx}\right)\sin{2\theta} &= 0\end{aligned}

We know coordinates of one point - ( 2 , 0 ) (2,0) - and we know that the slope is 0 at that point. On the other hand, we know that the other point lies on line y = x y = -x which is tangent to ellipse, which provide us with information that the point is of the form ( x , x ) (x,-x) and that slope is -1 at that point. Thus, we constitute four equations in for unknowns ( p , q , θ , x p,q,\theta,x ):

( 2 p ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + q 2 ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) 16 225 ( 2 p ) q sin 2 θ = 1 2 ( 2 p ) ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + 16 225 q sin 2 θ = 0 ( x p ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + ( x + q ) 2 ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) + 16 225 ( x p ) ( x + q ) sin 2 θ = 1 2 ( x p ) ( cos 2 θ 25 + sin 2 θ 9 ) + 2 ( x + q ) ( cos 2 θ 9 + sin 2 θ 25 ) 16 225 ( p q 2 x ) sin 2 θ = 0 \begin{aligned} (2-p)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+q^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)-\frac{16}{225}(2-p)q\sin{2\theta} &= 1 \\ 2(2-p)\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+\frac{16}{225}q\sin{2\theta} &= 0 \\ (x-p)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+(x+q)^{2}\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)+\frac{16}{225}(x-p)(x+q)\sin{2\theta} &= 1 \\ 2(x-p)\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{25}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{9}\right)+2(x+q)\left(\frac{\cos^{2}{\theta}}{9}+\frac{\sin^{2}{\theta}}{25}\right)-\frac{16}{225}\left(p-q-2x\right)\sin{2\theta} &= 0\end{aligned}

I've used Matlab's fsolve function with initial guess ( p , q , θ , x ) = ( 0 , 4.5 , π / 4 , 2 ) (p,q,\theta,x) = (0, 4.5, -\pi/4, -2) to solve this non-linear system. Solutions I got were: ( p , q , θ , x ) = ( 0.080273 , 4.163592 , 0.806373 , 2.013175 ) (p,q,\theta,x) = (0.080273, 4.163592, -0.806373, -2.013175) .

Area is then found to be A = 0.724965667512301 A = 0.724965667512301 and 1000 A = 724 \left \lfloor 1000A \right \rfloor = 724 . Proposed correct answer is actually 725 and this slight difference is, I assume, due to accuracy of numerical methods employed.

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