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Orthogonal Conics (Posted on 2011-12-10) Difficulty: 3 of 5
An ellipse and hyperbola have the same foci.

Prove that they are orthogonal.

  Submitted by Bractals    
Rating: 5.0000 (1 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
Let F1 and F2 be the shared foci. The tangent
line to [an ellipse | a hyperbola] at a point
P on the [ellipse | hyperbola] is [perpendicular
to | coincides with] the bisector of ∠F1PF2.

Clearly the curves are perpendicular at a point
of intersection. Thus, the curves are orthogonal.

QED

Note: See Harry's post for an analytic solution.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
SolutionSolutionHarry2011-12-12 22:14:17
A single caseJer2011-12-12 16:04:11
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