01 - Conic Sections: Ellipses - Graphing, Equation of an Ellipse, Focus - Part 1 - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12 | Lumos Learning

01 - Conic Sections: Ellipses - Graphing, Equation of an Ellipse, Focus - Part 1 - Free Educational videos for Students in k-12


01 - Conic Sections: Ellipses - Graphing, Equation of an Ellipse, Focus - Part 1 - By Math and Science



Transcript
00:00 Hello . Welcome back to comic sections . Were covering
00:02 the topic of ellipses or studying the comic section known
00:05 as the ellipse today . So by the end of
00:08 this lesson , what I really want to get across
00:10 to you is number one , what does the ellipse
00:12 look like ? And number two , probably the most
00:14 important thing is what is the equation ? The general
00:16 equation of an ellipse . But most importantly how ellipses
00:20 look very similar to circles . In fact , the
00:23 shape of an ellipse looks like a stretched version of
00:26 a circle . So we're gonna talk about that and
00:28 the equation of a circle and the equation of an
00:30 ellipse , even though they look kind of different .
00:33 At first I'm going to show you by the end
00:34 of this lesson that they actually are very , very
00:36 closely related . So if you take the equation of
00:39 a circle , you can kind of modify it to
00:41 look like an equation of an ellipse because a circle
00:43 is very closely related to an ellipse . So we're
00:46 going to go through that logic . I want you
00:47 to understand that the ellipse and circle , or cousins
00:50 of one another and they're very closely related to one
00:53 another . And as the problems and the lessons proceed
00:56 , we will get into graphing ellipses . More will
00:58 start shifting ellipses around in the xy plane . And
01:00 so by the end of all of it , you'll
01:01 understand where your lips has come from , how to
01:03 derive the equation of the lips and so forth .
01:05 So the first thing I want to do , this
01:07 is a long lesson . I have a lot to
01:08 get out . Okay , so I want to kind
01:10 of get started . Uh the first thing I wanna
01:12 do is draw the general shape of an ellipse .
01:14 Now , I'm really not great at drawing ellipses ,
01:17 I'm sorry about that . They're almost always pancake shaped
01:20 . So this is a terrible lips , I can
01:22 tell . This is too fat , too skinny .
01:23 It's it's okay though because it doesn't the accuracy doesn't
01:27 matter so much for what I'm trying to get across
01:28 . But you need to use your imagination and pretend
01:30 that this is an ellipse , which is a stretched
01:33 version of a circle . All right now , the
01:35 thing you have to get used to with any lips
01:37 is there are two special points inside of an ellipse
01:40 . They're called Focus number one . And Focus number
01:43 two . If you think about a circle , there's
01:45 a special point to a circle . Also , it's
01:47 just called the center of the circle . It's right
01:49 in the middle and there's only one of those special
01:51 points . We call it the center . But for
01:53 any lips , there's not just one special point because
01:55 it stretched out . There's two special points and we
01:58 call them , we don't call them the center because
01:59 they're not in the center . We call them Focus
02:02 number one and Focus number two . So this would
02:04 be the center of the ellipse . But the focus
02:06 number one is somewhere over here , so I'm gonna
02:07 go and put F number one right here And focus
02:11 number two is somewhere over here . F sub two
02:13 . There's two different focuses . We actually call them
02:16 foe . See when you have two of them ,
02:17 plural of focus . Focus is is fuzzy . Now
02:21 as the one thing we're gonna talk about mathematically is
02:24 if you take a ellipse like this with Focus number
02:27 one and Focus number two . If that were to
02:29 start to cram this ellipse together and make it less
02:31 and less elliptical by cramming it together . Eventually it
02:34 will become a circle and when it becomes a circle
02:36 , Focus one and focus to become right on top
02:39 of each other , right in the center . So
02:41 that's why a circle is a special case of an
02:44 ellipse , where both of the focus is kinda line
02:47 up right on top of each other . We're gonna
02:49 talk about that more . We're gonna show the equations
02:51 of why that's the case . But what I want
02:53 to do now is I'm going to talk about the
02:54 definition of an ellipse . What does an ellipse mean
02:57 ? Why does it have this special shape ? All
03:00 right , so the black curve is what we call
03:02 any lips . There are points all along this curve
03:05 . Uh And those points , I can label them
03:06 anything I want , but I'm gonna call this point
03:08 P . And this P has an X . And
03:11 a Y coordinate . Because you have to imagine this
03:13 ellipse in an xy plane with X coordinate and a
03:16 Y coordinate . And every point on this black curve
03:19 has an X and a Y coordinate . I could
03:21 plot all those points and I would pop my ellipse
03:24 . But what I want to get across to you
03:25 now is what is the geometric definition of an ellipse
03:29 ? Right ? If you think back to a circle
03:31 , it's easy enough . I don't even have to
03:32 draw a circle is a shape where the center is
03:35 in the middle and all of the points on the
03:37 circle are in equal distance , all the way around
03:40 from the central point . So the definition of a
03:42 circle might be something like the set of all points
03:46 , an equal distance from the center . That is
03:48 what a circle is . Well , an ellipse has
03:50 a very similar definition , but because there's two special
03:53 points instead of one center , the definitions a little
03:56 bit more complicated . So I'm going to draw a
03:58 distance from this focus to this point and then I'm
04:02 gonna draw a distance from this focus to the same
04:04 point . And what the definition of an ellipse says
04:07 is that the black curve is the set of all
04:10 points . Where if I take this distance to the
04:13 black curve and this distance from the black curve to
04:16 the second focus and I add them together , then
04:19 the ellipse has a constant basically that that total distance
04:23 when you add them all together is a constant for
04:26 any point on the black curve . So a better
04:28 way to probably talk about it would be to write
04:30 it down . What I'm saying is much like a
04:32 circle is defined in terms of the distance from the
04:35 center , that's where all the points on the circle
04:37 are . All of the points on the black curve
04:39 are defined as like this . The distance from focus
04:42 number one to the point P . The single point
04:44 P . Right here , plus The distance from focus
04:47 , number two to the same point P has to
04:51 be equal a constant . Now this constant is going
04:54 to determine the shape and the size of the ellipse
04:56 . So if I say that this distance plus this
04:58 distance has to be five , let's say let's make
05:01 it five . Uh Then what it means is that
05:04 this distance plus this distance must equal five . Then
05:07 it also means if I go to a point over
05:10 nearby than the distance between here and this point on
05:14 the black curve . Plus this point down here must
05:17 also be five . The distance from this focus to
05:19 this point on the curve here , plus this distance
05:22 here must be five . You see the pattern ,
05:24 the distance down here to this point plus this point
05:26 . This distance must be five . This plus this
05:29 must be five . This plus this must be five
05:30 . This plus this must be five . So much
05:33 like a circle is a simpler version of that .
05:35 The definition of a circle is the distance from a
05:38 central point . This is similar . It's just because
05:41 we have two special points , it's that some of
05:43 those distances must be a number constant . I'm picking
05:47 the number five here , but just like the radius
05:49 of the circle changes the shape of the circle .
05:52 The some of these uh what we call focal radi
05:55 I This is a focal radius number . One ,
05:57 focal radius number two has to be some number and
06:00 the different number , we choose , just like the
06:01 radius of a circle is going to determine how big
06:04 or small , how the thing looks in general .
06:07 All right , we're gonna do a lot more with
06:09 that uh in a little bit we're gonna actually derive
06:12 in the next lesson . The equation of the lips
06:14 just from this definition right here . But I want
06:17 you to kind of put that in the back of
06:18 your mind right now , and just remember that's what
06:21 the geometric definition of an ellipses and what I want
06:25 to do now is turn our attention back to uh
06:29 the equation of a circle because I want to focus
06:32 this lesson mostly on how a circle . If you
06:34 stretch it a little bit becomes any lips . And
06:37 the equation of a circle can be shown to look
06:39 like the equation of an ellipse . So we've already
06:41 done circles . Let's go and transform them to make
06:43 them into ellipses . Now , for those of you
06:45 who don't like surprises , I want to show you
06:47 kind of the punch line before we kind of go
06:49 too far here . This is the general shape of
06:51 any lips . So the punch line , we're going
06:53 to talk about this in great detail during this lesson
06:56 and the next lesson . But I have a summary
06:58 on the board here . I don't usually like throwing
07:01 summaries at you , but I want you to have
07:03 the big picture in your mind , basically . This
07:05 is an ellipse that's oriented horizontally , but you can
07:09 also have the ellipse oriented vertically . So this is
07:12 oriented where the long side is along the X .
07:14 Axis and this one's oriented up and down where the
07:17 ellipses oriented on the Y . Axis . For now
07:20 just forget about this . And let's talk about this
07:22 one up here . All this is saying is that
07:25 for an ellipse that centered at 00 , that means
07:27 that centre on the origin and the focus is let's
07:31 just pretend it's at some number negative C and positive
07:33 . See we're gonna talk a whole lot more about
07:34 focuses later . Don't worry about some of the local
07:37 radio . I will talk about that in the next
07:39 lesson before an equation horizontally oriented like this . This
07:42 is what the equation of the ellipse looks like .
07:45 All right , So you have X squared , you
07:46 have a Y square . Now stop right there and
07:48 just remember back . The equation of a circle also
07:51 has an X squared plus a Y squared , right
07:55 ? We're gonna show that in just a second .
07:56 But this one looks different because you're dividing by a
07:59 square . You're dividing by B squared . So basically
08:01 , whatever is underneath the X . Square term is
08:04 the place where it crosses the X axis . So
08:07 if you write it as a squared and then it
08:09 crosses at the number A In other words , if
08:11 this were X squared over three squared , the ellipse
08:14 would cross over here and then of y squared over
08:17 b squared whatever number is down here determines where it
08:20 crosses on the y axis . So you can look
08:22 at the equation and figure out exactly where the ellipse
08:25 crosses on the X and the Y axis . Just
08:27 by looking at it , you just take the square
08:29 root down here , in the square root down here
08:31 , and then that's where they cross . The focus
08:33 will talk about how to calculate that comes from this
08:35 equation , we'll talk about that part of it a
08:37 little bit later . Now , if you rotate the
08:40 ellipse so that it's vertically oriented , you have the
08:43 same thing , you have a focus at negative C
08:45 . And positive . See the focus always goes along
08:48 the long direction of the ellipse , and you have
08:51 the same kind of equation X squared over something squared
08:54 , Y squared over something squared is one . All
08:57 I'm saying here is that the number underneath the X
09:00 variable is where it crosses on the X axis ,
09:04 the number under the y variable . You just take
09:06 the square root and that's where it crosses on the
09:08 y axis . And we have a long axis ,
09:11 we call a major axis and we have a short
09:14 axis called a minor axis . So basically we haven't
09:18 gotten into problems yet . But the bottom line is
09:20 when you write the equation , I'm gonna lips down
09:22 , it's gonna be really easy to graph them because
09:25 all you have to do is look at these numbers
09:26 that are under here and that's going to tell you
09:28 exactly where the ellipses going across . And then we'll
09:31 want to sketch the curve of it . So don't
09:34 forget your geometric definition , uh how the shape comes
09:39 about is that this kind of focal radius plus this
09:43 focal radius has to equal a constant . When we
09:46 go through the math , that we will go through
09:47 the next section . We're gonna pop out with the
09:49 equations that we just talked about there . Now ,
09:51 what I want to do for the rest of the
09:53 lesson is I want to show you that the equation
09:55 of a circle as a starting point can be shown
09:58 to look like the equation of an ellipse and how
10:00 they're very similarly related . We're also going to get
10:02 some practice with graphic . So what do I want
10:04 to do next ? I want to kind of put
10:07 a little divider line right under here because we're going
10:10 to start kind of a new a new little topic
10:13 . We're going to talk about the equation of a
10:15 circle . So let's say we have a circle ,
10:19 right ? We've done circles before , so let's take
10:21 the equation of a circle , X squared plus y
10:23 square is equal to three squared . Now this is
10:27 an equation of a circle . Notice what it looks
10:29 like , X squared plus y squared is some number
10:31 squared . It doesn't really look like the equation of
10:34 an ellipse because there's a one over here , so
10:37 that's different . Plus there's these things you're dividing by
10:39 , these are all different , but you do have
10:41 an X squared and y squared in both cases .
10:43 Alright , So and you do have a plus sign
10:45 notice there's a plus sign here . Uh there's a
10:48 plus sign here . So what I want to show
10:50 you is that this can be shown to look like
10:53 the equation of the lips , which I just wrote
10:55 down over there by the following thing . Let's divide
10:58 both sides by what is on the right hand side
11:00 . So if I do that , I'm gonna have
11:03 X squared plus y squared , I'll divide the entire
11:06 left side by what I have on the right three
11:08 square . And I know you know that that's nine
11:10 , but let's um let's go with it . Um
11:14 And on the right hand side you have three squared
11:16 over three squared . And by the way , what
11:19 does this equation look like ? What does the circle
11:22 look like ? We've done this so many times ,
11:23 I almost forgot to graphic . But basically this is
11:26 an xy graph . The right hand side is the
11:28 radius squared . So basically what you do is you
11:32 say what you have is this is x squared plus
11:35 y squared on the right is going to be equal
11:38 to nine which is three squared . So basically the
11:40 radius is squared . On the right hand side ,
11:43 we have +123123 12 here is negative three and then
11:49 12 here is negative three here . And you should
11:51 all know because we've done this so many times that
11:53 the equation of this circle looks something like this ,
11:56 it's not a perfect circle . Um But you get
11:59 the idea basically , it's a circle centered at the
12:01 origin because there's no shifted , no shifting inside of
12:05 these X and Y variables there . And the radius
12:07 is just whatever is on the right hand side ,
12:09 square root of it , which is squared of nine
12:11 , which is three . So it crosses notice that
12:13 three distance units away all the way around . That's
12:16 what the thing looks like . So it's very symmetrical
12:19 . All right , So keep that in the back
12:20 of your mind . Now , if we take this
12:22 circle , divide by three squared divided by three squared
12:25 . On the left hand side . When you have
12:27 this guy , you can write this as X squared
12:31 over three squared plus Y squared over three squared is
12:38 equal to one . Why equal to one ? Because
12:40 three squared over three squared is just the number one
12:43 . And so when I have this here , I
12:44 can break it apart . It's like if you think
12:46 about this is a common denominator , I could add
12:48 these back together . The common denominator would just be
12:50 the three squared . The top would be this ,
12:52 this numerator plus this one . So getting a little
12:56 bit closer here , notice what this looks like .
12:59 Okay , I can leave it like this , but
13:00 I can also write it if I want to is
13:02 X squared over nine plus Y squared over nine is
13:06 equal to one . So notice that this equation of
13:09 a circle which looks very different than the lips actually
13:13 can be shown to have the exact same form of
13:16 an ellipse . It's x squared over a number plus
13:19 Y squared over a number equals one . And that's
13:22 exactly what I told you . It would look like
13:24 X squared over a number plus Y squared over a
13:26 number equals one . So all ellipses all the circles
13:31 I should say can be shown to have the same
13:33 form of an equation as the ellipse . The only
13:36 difference is noticed , this thing is oblong , it's
13:38 stretched in one direction , whatever the number A is
13:42 . If it's like a really big number is going
13:43 to stretch that ellipse out really far because A is
13:45 where it crosses here . If B is really small
13:48 , you're gonna have a really thin ellipse . But
13:51 if this number under why happens to be bigger ,
13:53 then it's gonna stretch it in the Y . Direction
13:55 . If the number under the X . Is small
13:57 , it's gonna it's gonna shrink it in the X
13:59 . Direction . So the A . And the B
14:01 . Numbers in the equation of the lips determine how
14:04 the thing is stretched right ? But if those A
14:07 . And B . Numbers in this equation are is
14:09 the same , then that means they're not stretched any
14:12 different . They're stretched the same in both the X
14:14 . And the Y . Direction . So if these
14:15 numbers end up being the same what you end up
14:18 with is a circle . And we show that because
14:21 the equation of a circle when you divide through it
14:22 has the exact form as the equation of an ellipse
14:25 with the same numbers on the bottom . So this
14:28 is where it crosses in the X . Direction at
14:31 three distance units away . This is where it crosses
14:33 in the Y . Direction at three distance units away
14:36 . Yeah . So get that in your mind that
14:38 the equation of an ellipse and the equation of a
14:40 circle are basically the same . It's just that in
14:42 the lips , those denominators and those fractions are different
14:45 numbers . So what I would like to do now
14:47 is now that you know that the equation of a
14:49 circle can be made to look like this , let's
14:52 start playing around with it . Let's stretch this circle
14:55 in the X . Direction , let's leave the Y
14:58 . Direction alone . Let's leave it at three distance
15:00 units away . But let's stretch it in the X
15:02 . Direction . So what I mean by that is
15:04 let's go and draw another circle . I'm sorry ,
15:07 another ellipse over here and basically it's going to be
15:10 a stretched version of the one that we have here
15:13 . The one that we have here crossed three distance
15:15 units in the Y direction . But I'm saying let's
15:19 cross and stretch it out five units in the X
15:22 . direction and five distance units in that direction as
15:26 well . So you all know that this is three
15:29 , this is negative three , this is five negative
15:31 five . So what I want to do is draw
15:32 any lips that looks it stretched exactly the same as
15:36 that circle is in the Y direction . However ,
15:39 in the X direction it's stretched out . Whoops ,
15:42 that's that one up like that , something like that
15:46 , it looks like a football doesn't really quite look
15:48 right . But you see what I'm saying , I'm
15:49 basically stretching it out like this . What would the
15:52 equation of that ellipse look like ? What I'm saying
15:54 is the equation of the ellipse is basically the numbers
16:01 in the denominator of the X . Squared term is
16:04 how much it stretches in the X direction . The
16:06 denominator term for the Y determines how where it crosses
16:09 in the Y . Direction for a circle . These
16:11 numbers are the same , so it's a circular shape
16:13 . But if we stretch it five distance units out
16:16 and keep this at three distance units , what would
16:19 that equation look like ? Because this one was X
16:23 squared over nine . Why squared over nine is equal
16:25 to one ? Well , for the wide square term
16:30 it would be the same . Why squared over three
16:33 squared ? And you're gonna have the equal one .
16:35 Why ? Because we know it crosses it three and
16:37 negative three . But for the X square term it
16:40 doesn't cross it three , it crosses it plus minus
16:42 five . So this has to be five squared .
16:45 So this without any proof is the I haven't proved
16:48 it to . You haven't haven't made a table of
16:50 values . I'm just saying we know how to graph
16:51 circles . We know the equation of a circle can
16:54 be shown to be the same as the equation of
16:55 any lives . And by changing these denominators , it
16:58 just changes where things cross . That's it . So
17:00 this crosses at plus -5 . This crosses at plus
17:03 -3 . We took the same circle , we stretched
17:05 it out . Okay , which means that this equation
17:09 really is x squared over 25 plus Y squared over
17:15 nine is equal to one , compare that to this
17:17 one . This is X squared over nine , Y
17:20 squared over nine . If one this is x squared
17:22 over 25 Y squared over nine is equal to one
17:25 . Everything from here on was the same in the
17:27 equation , we just changed this and that's why it
17:29 stretched it out . Now notice that this circle has
17:33 a special point in the center , which we call
17:35 the center , but ellipses have focuses , right ?
17:38 Which are because we stretch it , we kind of
17:40 take the center points and move them out . So
17:42 I'm not going to calculate where the focus , number
17:45 one and number two is in this guy here .
17:47 But the focus is gonna be somewhere around here and
17:50 somewhere around this year . Somewhere around here . I
17:55 mean , I don't know , it could be a
17:56 little bit closer , a little bit farther away as
17:57 we do more problems , we're going to calculate exactly
18:00 where the focus is . I'm not trying to calculate
18:03 that . Now , I'm just trying to show you
18:05 that when you stretch a circle out the special point
18:08 , which is called the center , it splits into
18:10 two focuses one On the left and one on the
18:13 right . Yeah . Now we talked about this a
18:17 minute ago , the long side of the of the
18:21 ellipse is called the major axis . The short side
18:24 of the ellipse is called the minor axis . So
18:25 if you're ever asked on a test which accesses the
18:29 major axis or whatever the X axis in this case
18:32 is the major axis and the y axis is the
18:37 minor axis , right ? Because the uh the major
18:44 axis is basically we're stretched in the X . Direction
18:48 longer in the Y direction . We're not stretched as
18:50 much . So it's the smaller one , it's called
18:52 the minor axis . Okay . One more thing I
18:55 want to kind of talk to you about before I
18:57 go on is that you can kind of think of
19:00 ellipses , you know we have a circle , you
19:01 only have one radius from the center point . But
19:04 for any lips you can kind of think of each
19:07 of these distances being different . Radius is different radi
19:09 I so you almost have like two radius . The
19:12 radius from this focus on the radius from this focus
19:15 . Okay , so you can kind of think of
19:17 these numbers underneath as being the radius in the X
19:20 . Direction and the radius in the Y direction for
19:22 the circle it's the same radius but for an ellipse
19:25 , the radius in the X direction is five And
19:28 the radius in the Y Direction is three . And
19:30 that's just another way of thinking about circles happen to
19:32 be a perfectly round , symmetrical version of an ellipse
19:36 . So that's why we don't talk about radius one
19:38 radius to for a circle . But for ellipses we
19:40 do because of because of that , let me make
19:42 sure I've caught up here . The faux side ,
19:44 the focus is always on the long direction of the
19:47 ellipse . They're never on the short side , they're
19:49 always on the long direction . We have a major
19:51 access . We have a minor axis . And the
19:55 takeaway here , is that an ellipse can be thought
19:57 of as a stretched circle ? That has kind of
19:59 two radius is one radi I in the X .
20:01 Direction , A different radio icon of in the Y
20:03 . Direction . Now what we did already is we
20:06 took this circle , we stretched it in the X
20:08 . Direction And we arrived at this . Now what
20:11 I want to do is take this circle and now
20:13 stretch it in the other direction . I'm gonna leave
20:15 this alone . I wanted to cross it plus or
20:17 -3 along the X . Direction . But I want
20:19 to stretch it in the Y . Direction and then
20:22 we're gonna take a look at what the equation looks
20:26 like in that case . So let's go ahead and
20:29 draw and access to . So we're all on the
20:32 same page and we understand what we're doing . So
20:37 what we're saying is we want to keep the original
20:39 radius in the X . direction being at plus or
20:41 -3 . But in the Y direction let's go up
20:44 to let's make it big 1234567 So this is positive
20:49 71234567 This is negative seven , something like this .
20:54 And so then if this is any lips that crosses
20:57 at seven here and then goes down and crosses at
21:00 three and then it goes down here , crosses at
21:02 seven , crosses up three and then crosses up at
21:04 seven . You see what I mean ? It's almost
21:06 like there's two different radius is here , one in
21:08 the X . Direction , one in the Y direction
21:10 , the radius in the X direction is three .
21:12 The radius in the Y direction is seven , right
21:15 ? So then it's very easy to write down the
21:17 equation of the ellipse because all you do is you
21:19 say it's got to be X squared over something .
21:21 So you look at how far is it stretched in
21:23 the X direction , where does it cross ? It
21:25 has to be over three squared . The crossing point
21:29 on the y axis is basically what is its radius
21:31 and kind of in the Y direction , which is
21:33 seven squared And you just set it equal to one
21:37 . All right ? So when you do the squaring
21:38 , what you get is x squared over nine Plus
21:41 y squared over 49 is the little one . And
21:44 this would be the equation of this ellipse . It's
21:46 centered at the origin because there's no shifting in the
21:49 X and Y direction . Only the numbers in the
21:51 bottom determine how the thing is stretched out . And
21:55 you can compare it to the equation of a circle
21:57 when we did all this math and we got down
21:59 to this point . This is how much we're stretching
22:02 , sort of the radius in the X Direction .
22:03 This is sort of the radius in the Y direction
22:05 . So we kept the X direction exactly the same
22:08 . In this case we only stretched the Y direction
22:10 and that's why it stretches up like this . And
22:13 then you can say that the the why direction is
22:18 called in this case the major access and this is
22:24 the minor axis . And by the way I mentioned
22:28 this in the previous lesson , but one of the
22:30 coolest things about ellipses is all of the orbits of
22:33 the planets in our solar system . You know ,
22:35 not just planets , but satellites , moons , anything
22:38 orbiting our sun that's on a trajectory . That's not
22:41 an escape trajectory . Just going around around . It's
22:44 always there always elliptical . And what is special about
22:47 these focuses these folks i is that for instance ,
22:49 if this were the orbit of Pluto , let's say
22:52 the sun would be at one of the focus is
22:54 one of the folks I of that ellipse . So
22:57 all of the planets going around the sun are going
22:59 in elliptical orbits with the sun being at the at
23:02 the point we call focus number one . Focus number
23:05 two way out in space . Doesn't have any any
23:08 any meaning really , it's just empty . But the
23:10 focus , the thing you're orbiting is actually at one
23:13 of the , one of the fallacy of the ellipse
23:15 that you have . Okay , so let me make
23:17 sure I've got everything straight . We started with a
23:20 circle . We showed that it really can be shown
23:22 to look like an equation of the lips . We
23:24 stretch in the X . Direction . And that means
23:26 that we uh we have the number getting bigger down
23:31 below the X . Squared term . So that stretches
23:33 in the X direction when we have the number getting
23:35 bigger in the Y direction . That we showed that
23:38 the that the uh thing is stretched in the Y
23:42 . Direction . And now what I want to do
23:44 is talk a little bit more about these focuses because
23:46 I didn't draw it here . But somewhere around here
23:48 will be a focus and somewhere around here will be
23:50 a focus . It always lies along the long end
23:53 of the ellipse . Somewhere there's a focus one and
23:55 a focus to . Now what I would like to
23:58 do is talk a little bit more concretely about why
24:02 an ellipse if you start to squish it down into
24:04 a circular shape , really does become the equation of
24:06 a circle . We've kind of shown that here ,
24:08 but I want to do one more little kind of
24:10 thought experiment with you to make sure we're all on
24:12 the same page , is it's kind of cool .
24:14 All right , so let's think of a really long
24:17 skinny lips . Something really , really long and skinny
24:20 . If it's really , really long and skinny ,
24:22 then the number that appears under the X . Direction
24:24 has to be really , really big because that means
24:26 it's gonna cross really far away . The number under
24:29 Y . When you take the square root of it
24:31 , that's where it's gonna cross in the Y direction
24:33 . So , if I want a really , really
24:35 skinny lips , let's do that . Let's draw a
24:38 long and skinny lips . Let's say I have any
24:41 lips that looks something like this was way out here
24:44 crosses way out here , something like this , that's
24:46 not perfect at all . But let's say it crosses
24:50 over here at negative 10 and positive 10 . And
24:53 let's say it crosses at negative three and positive three
24:56 . So it's really long and stretched out . What
24:57 would the equation of that lips look like ? Well
25:00 follows the same format centered at 00 So it's X
25:03 squared divided by whatever the crossing point is squared ,
25:09 right ? And then plus Y squared divided by wherever
25:15 the white crossing point is squared is equal to one
25:18 . This is exactly what I have written on this
25:19 board here , that whatever here is labeled as a
25:23 square , but the crossing point is not a squared
25:25 , it's basically the square root of that . Say
25:27 whatever is on the bottom , you take the square
25:28 root of it . And that is where it crosses
25:30 , saying for the Y value . So here take
25:33 the square root of this , I get 10 ,
25:35 take the square root of this , I get three
25:36 . And that's how I know that that's the equation
25:38 of this ellipse . So another way to write that
25:42 would be X squared over 100 plus Y squared over
25:47 nine is equal to one . This is the equation
25:50 of the sea lips . Now , somewhere along the
25:53 long direction is a focus number one . In a
25:56 focus number two . So let's put it here ,
25:58 I don't know exactly where there are ways . We
25:59 haven't calculated it , but here's the focus . We'll
26:01 call it F one and here's the focus . We
26:04 call it F two . Now , what I would
26:06 like to explain or explore with you is as we
26:09 squish this ellipse and get it more and more circular
26:12 . Of course the boundary will get more circular ,
26:14 but these focuses will get closer and closer together as
26:17 well and eventually we're gonna get to a circle .
26:20 And when we get to that point then the equation
26:22 of this ellipse should look like an equation of a
26:24 circle and we're gonna show that right now . So
26:27 let's do that . Let's draw another one of these
26:29 guys . Let's make a slightly less elongated version of
26:34 this . So here , I want to cross at
26:37 let's say six and negative six . Probably not symmetrical
26:41 . So let's do something like this , negative six
26:44 , something like this . And let's go and leave
26:47 it at plus or -3 . All I'm doing ,
26:51 I'm keeping this the same , but I'm showing you
26:53 that we're basically making this thing slightly more circular like
26:58 this . Now , somewhere in here is going to
27:01 be a focus . Let's call it right here and
27:04 right here , call this F one F two .
27:06 But notice as we squished it . This focus has
27:08 gotten closer now they're closer together . I'm not putting
27:11 the actual numbers here , but you know that they
27:13 have to move closer together . What would be the
27:15 equation of this ellipse ? Well , it would be
27:19 X squared over wherever it crosses squared , so six
27:23 squared is 36 . Why squared take the crossing point
27:28 square ? It ? Which is nine is equal to
27:31 one . So this is the equation of this ellipse
27:35 . So notice that this is 109 . So you
27:38 can tell us really , really stretched . This is
27:40 36 and nine . It's not quite a stretch ,
27:42 but it's still pretty darn stretched . Now let's do
27:45 another one and let's keep these guys , let's make
27:49 them a little bit closer together . Let's make this
27:53 over here now , at four And -4 . And
27:57 then this will be at three and this will be
27:59 at -3 . So this is going to be even
28:01 more circular . This is not a good lips .
28:04 I'm sorry about that actually , really terrible lumpy ellipse
28:06 . But you can see it's getting more and more
28:07 circular . And then of course , as we squish
28:10 it closer together , the focus must be getting closer
28:12 and closer together . And so what's the equation of
28:15 the Philips X squared over the crossing point ? In
28:18 the X direction squared , four square to 16 plus
28:22 y squared divided by the three squared which is nine
28:26 is equal to one . So you see what's happening
28:28 is I get squish it closer and closer . These
28:30 numbers are getting closer and closer to one another .
28:32 So now what I'd like to do is I would
28:35 like to get it really , really , really close
28:37 to being a circle . Really , really , really
28:39 close to being circular . So let's take it like
28:42 this . Yeah , this is X . This is
28:45 why . And let's say this is three , this
28:50 is negative three . Now this would be three and
28:53 they go to market three , right under it .
28:55 Here , here's a three right here . So this
28:57 is supposed to be a circle . But what I'm
28:58 gonna do is I'm gonna make it a little bit
29:01 just a tiny bit oblong . So it's going to
29:04 cross it three , but it's not gonna cross at
29:06 three here , it's gonna go just beyond it and
29:08 across it three here it's gonna cross just beyond it
29:10 . So it's very slightly egg shaped and I probably
29:14 should have drew it even closer in . It looks
29:15 a little bit like the one above , but you
29:17 see if it were a circle , it would cross
29:19 everywhere at three . Here , I'm crossing very slightly
29:21 out . And because of that , the focus is
29:23 now are really , really close to being on top
29:26 of one another . What's the equation of this ellipse
29:28 X . Squared over ? Let's just say for giggles
29:32 that this crosses at 3.1 . So I'll have to
29:35 square the 3.1 . The y squared will be three
29:39 and positive negative three . So to be three squared
29:43 . So what do I get for an equation here
29:45 , X squared . What is 3.1 squared ? I
29:48 get 9.61 just plus Y squared over nine is equal
29:53 to one . So you see when the ellipse gets
29:54 really , really close to circular , the bottom numbers
29:57 are becoming basically equal . Eventually I'm gonna get to
30:00 the point where they become um when they become the
30:04 same . So let's do that right below here .
30:08 And so here is three . Here is three .
30:12 Here is negative three . Here is negative three .
30:15 It's not gonna be perfect but I'm gonna try to
30:18 draw a circle here , it's a lumpy circle .
30:23 I know it's not perfect . But what's this equation
30:25 looks like ? Well it's gonna look like X squared
30:28 over three squared . I don't want to write this
30:30 three squared , which will be nine plus y squared
30:34 over three squared equals nine equal to one . Now
30:37 this is the equation of the quote unquote ellipse .
30:39 But now notice what's happened . Is that focus number
30:42 one ? And Focus number two are so close to
30:44 one another . They're essentially right on top of each
30:46 other , right at the center . So both of
30:47 the focus is kind of get closer to one another
30:49 . This is the equation of the ellipse here .
30:52 Now , what do you think is gonna happen if
30:54 I multiply this equation by nine ? If I take
30:58 this equation , uh let me kind of space this
31:01 out here and multiply by nine . Sorry , I'm
31:04 running out of space here , multiplied by nine here
31:06 . What am I gonna get ? I'm going to
31:08 distribute the nine into both of these . The nine
31:10 is going to cancel with this . The nine is
31:12 it distributes and will cancel with this one as well
31:14 . So basically the nines are gonna disappear from the
31:17 left . So what you're going to have is just
31:19 X squared plus Y squared is equal to nine ,
31:24 which is the equation of a circle . Because what
31:26 this is is X squared plus y squared is equal
31:30 to the radius square , it's a radius of three
31:33 . And that is the main idea of what I'm
31:36 trying to get across to you in this lesson is
31:39 that I can start with a really stretch your lips
31:41 with two really far away . FocA folks , I
31:44 right I can write the equation of the lips .
31:46 These numbers are really different because it stretched really far
31:48 in one direction . But as I bring them closer
31:51 and closer than numbers because the crossing points are getting
31:53 closer than numbers are getting closer and closer until finally
31:56 I'm just on the other side of three and they're
31:58 really close together . But if I ever make them
32:01 exactly equal to one another , then it becomes .
32:03 Even though you can write it as the equation of
32:05 an ellipse , you can write it and multiply through
32:08 and get it to look like what we think of
32:10 as the equation of a circle with both Fosse lining
32:14 up on top of one another . That's the most
32:17 important thing to come up with . So we started
32:19 the lesson by talking about the definition of the ellipse
32:24 and we talked about the fact that the distance from
32:27 the focus to any point on the ellipse , plus
32:30 that distance to the other focus has to be a
32:32 constant for every one of these points along the boundary
32:35 . And then we showed that you can start with
32:37 the equation of a circle , you can start stretching
32:39 it and then you end up with what we call
32:41 the equation of the ellipse . Now , what we're
32:43 gonna be doing as we solve future problems . We're
32:45 gonna use use these diagrams a lot . But the
32:48 bottom line is , the crossing points for the ellipse
32:50 are very easy because you read them right off ,
32:53 you have to take the square root of course ,
32:55 down below here , but it's basically right there in
32:58 the equation and it's always gonna be centered at 00
33:02 unless you have some shifting going on , which we're
33:04 going to get too much later . We're not moving
33:05 the ellipses around yet , we're going to get there
33:08 . So make sure you understand this . I encourage
33:10 you grab a sheet of paper , try to take
33:13 a lot of these . Take some of these ellipses
33:15 that I had here and graph them yourself . Make
33:18 sure you understand what's going on and you understand the
33:20 concept that the folks I are getting closer and closer
33:22 and closer together . Eventually , when you get to
33:24 a circle , those two folks , I line up
33:26 right on top of each other and the equation of
33:28 that ellipse in this case then becomes the equation of
33:30 a circle . So now you see circles are just
33:33 a special case of the general thing that we call
33:37 an ellipse .
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