Consider the elliptical area (shaded in light blue) in the figure above. It is given by
a 2 x 2 + b 2 y 2 ≤ 1
where a = 1 2 , and b = 7 .
I want to draw a straight line whose equation is y = 2 1 x + y 0 that will cut through the elliptical area dividing it into two parts, with the upper part being one third of the total elliptical area. Find the y-intercept y 0 , and input ⌊ 1 0 5 y 0 ⌋ as your answer.
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We start off by scaling the ellipse into the unit circle, by defining the image of ( x , y ) to be ( x ′ , y ′ ) with x ′ = a x ,and y ′ = b y .
The image of the line becomes: b y ′ = 2 1 a x ′ + y 0
Now this line is to be distant from the origin a distance D , such that the area of the circle above y = D is 3 1 of the unit circle area.
Let θ = 2 cos − 1 ( D ) , then the upper area is = 2 1 ( θ − sin ( θ ) ) .
Hence , 3 1 π = 2 1 ( θ − sin ( θ ) ) = 2 1 ( 2 cos − 1 ( D ) − sin ( 2 cos − 1 ( D ) ) )
We can find D numerically, by a suitable numerical method, such as Newton's method. To use this method, we
define the function f ( x ) = 2 1 ( 2 cos − 1 ( x ) − sin ( 2 cos − 1 ( x ) ) ) − 3 1 π , and we want the root of this function.
Newton's iteration, is given by x n + 1 = x n − f ′ ( x n ) f ( x n ) , where the derivative of our function is f ′ ( x ) = 2 1 ( 1 − x 2 − 2 − cos ( 2 cos − 1 ( x ) ) ⋅ 1 − x 2 ( − 2 ) )
This can be simplified and re-arranged into f ′ ( x ) = − 2 1 − x 2
Putting it all together and using any programming environment or a standard spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel, we can implement the Newton Iteration. I have taken the initial guess x 0 = 0 . 5 . You'll note that the iterations converge very quickly to our sought solution and we have the desired solution D = 0 . 2 6 4 9 3 2 0 8 5
Now we are ready to continue the solution. Recall that our line is given by b y ′ = 2 1 a x ′ + y 0
Its distance from the origin is given by: D = b 2 + 4 a 2 y 0
Thus y 0 = D b 2 + 4 a 2 = 0 . 2 6 4 9 3 2 0 8 5 4 9 + 4 1 4 4 = 2 . 4 4 2 5 5 3 1 3
This makes the answer ⌊ 1 0 5 y 0 ⌋ = 2 4 4 2 5 5
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I proceeded in three steps. Having limited time, I "cheated" and left the numerical work in Step 1 to the computer.
First find a line x = a that cuts the area of the unit circle in a ratio of 2:1. Solving ∫ 0 a 1 − x 2 d x = 2 1 ( a 1 − a 2 + arcsin a ) = 1 2 π numerically gives a ≈ 0 . 2 6 4 9 3 2 0 8 .
Second, find a line y = 7 6 x + b that cuts the area of the unit circle in a ratio of 2:1. We want the line's distance from the origin to be a , so b = a 1 + ( 7 6 ) 2 .
Finally, we are scaling our line by a factor of 12 horizontally and by a factor of 7 vertically, x ′ = 1 2 x and y ′ = 7 y , to take the form y ′ = 2 x ′ + 7 b with y 0 = 7 b = 8 5 a ≈ 2 . 4 4 2 5 5 3 1 .
The required answer is 2 4 4 2 5 5