Senior Contest—Meet 4 Name:

_______________________
N
SM Conic Sections School: _______________________
L North Suburban Math League, February 5, 2014 ☐ Contestant ☐ Alternate

1. What is the minimum value of the function f ^ x h = x 2 - 4x - 45 ?

2. John is making an elliptical shaped table from a rectangular piece of wood. He

puts two nails in the wood 16 inches apart, and then attaches 20 inches of string
between the nails. Using a pencil, he pulls the string tight and thus traces out the
set of all points whose sum of distances to the two nails is 20 inches, which is an
ellipse. In inches, what is the sum of the lengths of the major and minor axes of
the ellipse? (Units are not required in the answer.)

inches

3. For the hyperbola x 2 - y 2 + 6x - 4y + 6 = 0 , the point a 22 - 2, 22 - 2 k is a point

on one of the directrices. Find the coordinates of the point on the other directrix
that is closest to this point.

4. Let the foci of a hyperbola be (3, 0) and (–3, 0), and the difference in the distances
between the points on the hyperbola and the foci be 4. This hyperbola then has an
equation of the form mx 2 - ny 2 = p , where m, n, and p are positive integers and
m and n have no common factor greater than 1. For your answer, write the sum
m + n + p.

5. Given a focus at ^ 2 , 2 h, an eccentricity of 2 , and a directrix with equation

x + y = 2 , determine an equation of the hyperbola defined by these conditions.
Write the equation in the form Ax 2 + Bxy + Cy 2 + Dx + Ey = 1, and for your
answer, give the 5-tuple (A, B, C, D, E).