Australian Catholic University Mount Saint Mary

Semester 2 2021 Geometry MATH205

Assignment Part 3

Due: Friday 22nd October 2021

Assignment for: S00287752

12. An ellipse has its foci at (−1, 0) and (7, 0), and eccentricity 0.4.

Find the (lengths of the) semi-major and semi-minor axes, the location of the directrices, and the
equation of the ellipse. 5

2 2
13. The hyperbola with equation xa2 − yb2 = 1 has asymptotes y = ± 34 x and foci (±11, 0). Find the
values of a and b, the locations of the directrices and the eccentricity. 5

14. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630AD) developed 3 revolutionary laws (pun intended) about planetary
motion. Those laws are given below, although we don’t need the second one.

(1) The orbits of planets are ellipses with the Sun at one of the foci.

(2) The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.

(3) The square of a planet’s orbital period, P (the time it takes to complete an orbit of the
Sun), is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit, a. That is, in the
3
solar system, Pa 2 has the same value for each planet.

Later work by Isaac Newton (1643–1727AD) expanded on these laws to show they are true not just
for planets around the Sun, but also for moons around each planet, such as Jupiter.

(a) Jupiter has a very large number of moons (79 at current count, 53 of which are named).
Look up the so-called Galilean moons and list them, including one feature of each that
you think is interesting and also find the eccentricities of their orbits. Comment on the
shape of their orbit based on their eccentricities. 2

(b) Verify Kepler’s 3rd law by looking up the orbital period (the time it takes to complete
one orbit) and semi-major axis for each of these moons and showing that the constant of
proportionality is roughly equal for all of them. 2

(c) Considering the orbital periods of the Galilean satellites, find some ratios of the orbital
periods of these satellites. You should notice some interesting answers. Comment on
what you discover. 1

(d) Find one named moon of Jupiter that has a much more elliptical orbit than the Galilean
satellites — your moon should have an orbit with eccentricity greater than 0.2. Check
that the semi-major axis and orbital period still satisfy Kepler’s third law. 1
15. Continuing the astronomical theme, we note that astronomers don’t work with cartesian coor-
dinates, but with angles. That is, polar coordinates. We will develop a polar equation for conics. In
the following diagram of a conic, the distance from the focus F to the point P is r, the angle from the
axis of symmetry is θ, the distance between the focus and the directrix is k, and the eccentricity as
usual is e.

P
r
θ
F
k

p
(a) Show that r = , where p = ke. 2
1 + e cos θ

(b) In the elliptical case (e < 1) find rmax and rmin ; the largest and smallest values of r
respectively. (Don’t even think about using calculus for this bit.) 2

(c) Show that p = a(1 − e2 ). 2

Hint: use the maximum and minimum values of r that you just found.

(d) If P1 and P2 are two points on the conic whose angles θ1 and θ2 differ by 180◦ , show that
the harmonic mean of their respective values of r is a constant (you will need to look up
what harmonic mean is). 2

(e) If a conic has rmin = 10 and rmax = 19, find the eccentricity and semi-major axis. 2

Note: The saddest news is that, after all this hard work, we still can’t yet answer the important
question of where a planet/satellite will be at a given time. None of the above involves time t. You
have to do an awful lot more to work that out.