Basic Calculus Activity No.

Parabola

1. A satellite dish shaped like a paraboloid, has a diameter 6 ft. and depth 2.5ft. What is the equation
of the parabola? (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

2. A bridge has a parabolic arch that is 10m high in the center and 30m wide at the bottom. What
is the equation of the parabola? (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

3. Water flowing from a suspended garden hose to the ground follows a parabolic path, with the
hose’s opening as the vertex. Suppose the opening is 10ft high and that the water strikes the ground
a horizontal distance of 8ft from where the opening is located. What is the equation of the parabola?
(Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

4. On lighting a rocket cracker it gets projected in a parabolic path and reaches a maximum height
of 4m when it is 6m away from the point of projection. Finally, it reaches the ground 12m away
from the starting point. What is the equation of the parabola? (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

Ellipse

5. The arch of a bridge is in the shape of a semi-ellipse, with its major axis at the water level.
Suppose the arch of 22ft high in the middle, and 100ft across its major axis. What is the equation
of the ellipse? (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

6. A tunnel through a mountain for a four lane highway is to have an elliptical opening. The total
width of the highway (not the opening) is to be 16m, and the height at the edge of the road must
be sufficient for a truck 4m high to clear if the highest point of the opening is to be 5m
approximately. What is the equation of the ellipse? (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

7. Suppose that the orbit of a planet is in the shape of an ellipse for which the distance between the
vertices is 1400 million kilometers and the distance between the foci is 800 million kilometers.
Find the equation of the orbit. (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

Hyperbola

8. At the same instant, two radio stations A and B 1000m apart on an east-west line, sent a signal
each to a ship out at sea. Suppose the ship received from signal A 2.5 s before the message from
B. What is the equation of the hyperbola that would model the situation? Use 340m/s as the speed
of the sound. (Clue: Vertex is at the origin)

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