Ask Singapore Homework?

Upload a photo of a Singapore homework and someone will email you the solution for free.



Question

junior college 1 | H2 Maths
One Answer Below

Anyone can contribute an answer, even non-tutors.

Answer This Question
mint
Mint

junior college 1 chevron_right H2 Maths chevron_right Singapore

please help to determine if it's an ellipse or a circle please, thank you!

Date Posted: 4 years ago
Views: 616
Lim En Jie
Lim En Jie
4 years ago
Just out of curiosity, why not just punch into GC then can tell if it’s circle of ellipse? Just remember it’s ±sqrt[f(x)]

If you want to be able to tell just from looking at the equation, you’d have to familiarise yourself with the “general forms” for shapes as per mentioned by the answer provided. To add on;

Circles and ellipses have (+) sign ie x^2+y^2 or y^2+x^2. To differentiate between them, circles have same coefficients for x^2/y^2 but ellipses have different coefficients for x^2/y^2.

Hyperbolas have (-) sign ie x^2-y^2 or y^2-x^2.

When I first started JC, I was also not very used to relying on GC but eventually have to because of the sheer convenience and for future topics like differentiation/integration you can and should actually just get the answer from GC (unless otherwise states) instead of working it out manually.

See 1 Answer

done {{ upvoteCount }} Upvotes
clear {{ downvoteCount * -1 }} Downvotes
Yong Jian Rong
Yong Jian Rong's answer
5 answers (Tutor Details)
1st
For an ellipse, the idea is that the length and height must have different coefficients a and b, so that one side appears more stretched than the other.

Your question has 1x squared and 4 y squared, which means the shape is more stretched along x (see my drawing).

Hope this helps :)
mint
Mint
4 years ago
hi thank you for your explanation ! :) however may i clarify, if i divide 25 on the LHS as well, wont both the length of x and y be 5? meaning radius both 5, issa circle?
Yong Jian Rong
Yong Jian Rong
4 years ago
As there is a coefficient 4 for y squared, dividing by 25 will give you 4/25.

Whereas coefficient of x squared is 1, dividing by 25 will give you 1/25.

The length and width will still be different, so it is an ellipse.