TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES VISAYAS

Capt. Sabi St., City of Talisay, Negros Occidental

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

Segment of Circles and Ellipses

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the subject

ANALYTIC GEOMETRY WITH SOLID MENSURATION (MATH 3)

SUBMITTED TO:
Mrs. Cristina G. Ang

SUBMITTED BY:
Cabrillos, John Roy
Hidalgo, Michael Jhon
Mariano, Realen
Poda, Eric
Vallenzuela, Justin Jurel

DATE:
February 4, 2020
 INTRODUCTION

Ellipses are very important parts of geometry, the study of points, lines and shapes; but

they're important outside of geometry as well. In fact, you can find ellipse in everyday life--

they're just about everywhere.

The ellipse is one of the four classic conic sections created by slicing a cone with a plane. The

others are the parabola, the circle, and the hyperbola. The ellipse is vitally important in

astronomy as celestial objects in periodic orbits around other celestial objects all trace

out ellipses.

Ellipses are very important in many areas of science and technology. They arise quite

naturally in many areas. One is planetary orbits. The orbit of any planet is an ellipse with the

body being orbited located at one of the two foci of the elliptical path. All celestial bodies –

planets, stars, comets, asteroids, &c. – orbit in elliptical paths, though one body can affect the

orbit of another by perturbing it slightly.

 Real life application of ellipse

Many real-world situations can be represented by ellipses, including orbits of planets,

satellites, moons and comets, and shapes of boat keels, rudders, and some airplane wings. A

medical device called a lithotripter uses elliptical reflectors to break up kidney stones by

generating sound waves. Some buildings, called whispering chambers, are designed with

elliptical domes so that a person whispering at one focus can easily be heard by someone

standing at the other focus. This occurs because of the acoustic properties of an ellipse. When a

sound wave originates at one focus of a whispering chamber, the sound wave will be reflected

off the elliptical dome and back to the other focus. In the whisper chamber at the Museum of

Science and Industry in Chicago, two people standing at the foci—about 43 feet apart—can hear

each other whisper.

 Key points

 An ellipse is formed by a plane intersecting a cone at an angle to its base.

 All ellipses have two focal points, or foci. The sum of the distances from every point on the
ellipse to the two foci is a constant.
 All ellipses have a center and a major and minor axis.
 All ellipses have eccentricity values greater than or equal to zero, and less than one.

Diagram of an ellipse

Parts of an Ellipse

Center
The center of the ellipse has coordinates (h,k)(h,k).

Major Axis
The major axis of the ellipse is the longest width across it. For a horizontal ellipse, that axis is

parallel to the x-axis. The major axis has length 2a. Its endpoints are the major axis vertices, with

coordinates (h±a,k).

Minor Axis
The minor axis of the ellipse is the shortest width across it. For a horizontal ellipse, it is parallel

to the y-axis. The minor axis has length 2b. Its endpoints are the minor axis vertices, with

coordinates (h,k±b).

Foci
The foci are two points inside the ellipse that characterize its shape and curvature. For a

horizontal ellipse, the foci have coordinates (h±c,k), where the focal length cc is given by

𝑐 2 =𝑎2 −𝑏 2
Eccentricity
All conic sections have an eccentricity value, denoted e. All ellipses have eccentricities in

the range e < 10≤e<1. An eccentricity of zero is the special case where the ellipse becomes

a circle. An eccentricity of 11 is a parabola, not an ellipse.

The eccentricity is defined as:

𝑐
e=𝑎

or, equivalently:

√𝑎2 −𝑏2
e= 𝑎

√𝑎 −𝑏 2 2
=√ 𝑎2

𝑏2
=√1 − 𝑎2

The orbits of the planets and their moons are ellipses with very low eccentricities, which is to say

they are nearly circular. The orbits of comets around the sun can be much more eccentric. For

comets and planets, the sun is located at one focus of their elliptical orbits.

Slices

There are two main "slices" of a circle:

The “pizza” slice is called a Sector.

And the Segment, which is cut from the circle by a “chord” ( a line between two points on the
circle).

An ellipse is defined as the locus of all points in the plane for which the sum of the
distances r1 and r2 to two fixed points F1 and F2 (called the foci) separated by a distance 2c, is a
given constant 2a.

Therefore, from this definition the equation of the ellipse is: r1 + r2 = 2a, where a = semi-major
axis.
The most common form of the equation of an ellipse is written using Cartesian coordinates with
the origin at the point on the x-axis between the two foci shown in the diagram on the left.

If we define the semi-minor axis, b2 = a2 – c2, then the ellipse equation can be rewritten as:

semi-major axis

where

semi-minor axis

The shape of the ellipse is described by its eccentricity. The larger the semi-major axis relative
to the semi-minor axis, the more eccentric the ellipse is said to be. The eccentricity is defined as:

Another useful relation can be obtained substituting for b in the equation above:

This gives an interpretation of the eccentricity as the position of the foci as a fraction of the semi-
major axis.

The position of a point on an ellipse can be specified by using polar coordinates, radial
distance r and angle f, with the origin on one of the foci. This allows us to express (x,y)
coordinates using:
The equation of the ellipse can also be written in terms of the polar coordinates (r, f).
Substituting for x and y in the ellipse equation we get:

The circle is a special case of an ellipse with c = 0, i.e. the two foci coincide and become the
circle’s centre. If we substitute for zero eccentricity in the equations above, we obtain a = b, so
both axes are equal to each other, and to the circle’s radius.

Common Sectors

The Quadrant and Semicircle are two special types of Sector:

Half a circle is
a Semicircle.

Quarter of a circle is
a Quadrant.

Area of a Sector

You can work out the Area of a Sector by comparing its angle to the angle of a full circle.

Note: we are using radians for the angles.

This is the reasoning:

A circle has an angle of 2π and an Area of:πr2

A Sector has an angle of θ instead of 2π so its Area is :θ2π × πr2

Which can be simplified to:θ2 × r2

Area of Sector = θ2 × r2 (when θ is in radians)

Area of Sector = θ × π360 × r2 (when θ is in degrees)

Area of Segment

The Area of a Segment is the area of a sector minus the triangular piece (shown in light blue
here).

There is a lengthy reason, but the result is a slight modification of the Sector formula:

Area of Segment = θ − sin(θ)2 × r2 (when θ is in radians)

Area of Segment = ( θ × π360 − sin(θ)2 ) × r2 (when θ is in degrees)

Arc Length

The arc length (of a Sector or Segment) is:

L = θ × r (when θ is in radians)

L = θ × π180 × r (when θ is in degrees)

Example:

Find the equation of the ellipse with focus at (-1,7) and vertices at V1(-1,8) and V2(-1,-2).

Solution:

We will use the coordinates of the focus and the vertices to determine the centre of the ellipse
and a and b. We then will substitute these coordinates into the appropriate standard equation of
an ellipse. Because the major axis passes through points V1 and V2, we see that the major axis is
a vertical line that is parallel to the y-axis. So the standard equation to use is

(𝑥−ℎ)2 (𝑦−𝑘)2
+ = 1 where a>b>0
𝑏2 𝑎2

Since the midpoint of the major axis is the centre of the ellipse, the coordinates of the centre are
(-1,3), as in figure 7-22,

From figure 7-22, we see that the

distance between the centre of the
ellipse and either vertex is a=5, We
also see that the distance between the
focus and the centre is c=4. Since
𝑏 2 = 𝑎2 − 𝑐 2 is an ellipse, we can
substitute 5 for a and 4 for c and
solve for 𝑏 2 :

𝑏2 = 𝑎2 − 𝑐 2

=52 − 42

=9

To find the equation of the ellipse, we substitute -1 for h, 3 for k, 25 for 𝑎2 , and 9 for 𝑏 2 in the
standard equation and simplify;

(𝑥−ℎ)2 (𝑦−𝑘)2
+ = 1
𝑏2 𝑎2

(𝑥−(−1)2 (𝑦−3)2
+ =1
9 25

(𝑥+1)2 (𝑦−3)2
+ =1
9 25
 On-line References

https://www.cut-the-knot.org/Generalization/Cavalieri2.shtml

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/circle-sector-segment.html

https://www.sparknotes.com/math/precalc/conicsections/section3/

http://oer2go.org/mods/en-boundless/www.boundless.com/algebra/textbooks/boundless-algebra-
textbook/conic-sections-341/the-circle-and-the-ellipse-50/parts-of-an-ellipse-414-17458/index.html

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/E/Ellipse

https://www.google.com/search?q=ellipse+example+problem+with+solution+with+graph&sxsrf=ACYBG
NR3t2RnuGnjK7ZdsEVBwcYQDNvYFw:1580733774821&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjru
oeZtLXnAhWVPXAKHXlXAaAQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1366&bih=667#imgrc=s81ubEyEYu_yyM