Chapter 12
Conquering Conic Sections
IN THIS CHAPTER
Closing in on circles
Graphing parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas
Recognizing the different conic sections
Working with parametric form and polar coordinates
Who doesn’t love a good cone? Some are big fans of a double-dip ice cream cone, but maybe you’re partial to the traffic cone because it keeps you safe on the road. Whatever type of cone is your favorite, for mathematicians the cone is the creative fuel for the fire of a whole bunch of ideas.
You see, about 2,200 years ago, some smart mathematician named Apollonius of Perga decided to stack two cones point to point. He sliced them in different directions and came up with four different conic sections: the circle, the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola. Each conic section has its own equation and its own parts, which you need to determine in order to graph it. You may wish to graph a conic section, identify certain parts, or write its equation. The basis of any of these tasks is to be able to recognize what kind of conic section it is and write it in its own equation ...
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