conics2008
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Pluvia: Conics stop deleting this thread, even if you don't benefit other people might
This is the question.
The chord y=mx+c meets the ellipse x^2/16 + y^2 =1 at P and Q.
i) Find the midpoint M of PQ.
I started off by finding those two points by subbin in y=mx+c into y^2 and then making it look like quadratic and then finding the x values etc etc.. but answer is way different.
I got an equation (1+16m^2)x^2+(32mc)x+16(c^2-1)=0
x= -16mc+4root 16m^2+1-c^2/16m^2+1
x= -16-4root 16m^2+1-c^2/16m^2 +1
these are my x coord of P and Q ....
finding y we must sub x into y=mx+c
coord of P ( -16mc+4root 16m^2+1-c^2 / 16m^2+1 , 4mroot 16m^2+1-c^2 +c / 16m^2 +1 )
its a long coordinate.
now the other one Q its the same but has - sign for the root
hence midpoint is plus x1 and x2 /2
the mid point for x is -16/16m^2+1
bloody hell this is the answer i keep getting.. where am i going wrong..
and y i get c/16m^2+1
Thank you.
This is the question.
The chord y=mx+c meets the ellipse x^2/16 + y^2 =1 at P and Q.
i) Find the midpoint M of PQ.
I started off by finding those two points by subbin in y=mx+c into y^2 and then making it look like quadratic and then finding the x values etc etc.. but answer is way different.
I got an equation (1+16m^2)x^2+(32mc)x+16(c^2-1)=0
x= -16mc+4root 16m^2+1-c^2/16m^2+1
x= -16-4root 16m^2+1-c^2/16m^2 +1
these are my x coord of P and Q ....
finding y we must sub x into y=mx+c
coord of P ( -16mc+4root 16m^2+1-c^2 / 16m^2+1 , 4mroot 16m^2+1-c^2 +c / 16m^2 +1 )
its a long coordinate.
now the other one Q its the same but has - sign for the root
hence midpoint is plus x1 and x2 /2
the mid point for x is -16/16m^2+1
bloody hell this is the answer i keep getting.. where am i going wrong..
and y i get c/16m^2+1
Thank you.
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