A.

WORD PROBLEMS
1. Two girls are standing in a whispering gallery that is shaped like semielliptical arch. The height of the arch is 30 feet and the width is 100 feet.
How far from the center of the room should whispering dishes be placed so
that the girls can whisper to each other? (whispering dishes are placed at the
foci of an ellipse)
2. The cables of the middle part of a suspension
bridge are in the form of a parabola, and the
towers supporting the cable are 600 feet apart
and 100 feet high. What is the height of the cable
at a point 150 feet from the center of the bridge?
SOLUTION:

Lets draw a picture of the bridge, and place the middle of the cable (vertex) at
the point (0, 0).

3. A searchlight has a parabolic reflector (has a cross section that forms a

bowl). The parabolic bowl is 16 inches wide from rim to rim and 12 inches
deep. The filament of the light bulb is located at the focus.
a. What is the equation of the parabola used for the reflector?
b. How far from the vertex is the filament of the light bulb?

4. An ice rink is in the shape of an ellipse, and is 150 feet long and 75 feet
wide. What is the width of the rink 15 feet from a vertex?
Solution:

5. Two radar sites are tracking an airplane that is flying on a hyperbolic path.
The first radar site is located at (0, 0), and shows the airplane to be 200
meters away at a certain time. The second radar site, located 160 miles east
of the first, shows the airplane to be 100 meters away at this same time.
Find the coordinates of all possible points where the airplane could be

located. (Find the equation of the hyperbola where the plane could be
located).
SOLUTION:
Lets draw a picture first and remember that the constant difference for a
hyperbola is always 2a. The planes path is actually on one branch of the
hyperbola; lets create a horizontal hyperbola, so well use the
equation

6. A hall 100 feet in length is to be designed as a whispering gallery. If the

foci are located 25 feet from the center, how high the ceiling be at the
center?
SOLUTION:
Standard form of equation for an ellipse with horizontal major axis and
center at the origin:
2
2
x y
+
=1 For the given problem::
2
2
a b
a=50
a2=2500
c=25
c2=625
c2=a2-b2
b2=a2- c2
b2=2500-625=1875
b=187543.3 feet
How high will the ceiling be at center? 43.3 feet above the center.