1. Conics THE MATHEMATICS AND APPLICATIONS BY TERRELL HAUGHTON

2. Introduction  Conics are one of the many facets of pre-calculus.  It’s derivatives are used in a variety of jobs including construction  It equations specifically model curves some perpendicular, others more complex  All conics are simply taken from a cone

3. Types of Conic Sections 1. Parabola 2. Circle and Ellipse 3. Hyperbola

4. Applications of Conics  While when first created in Greece by Apollonius of Perga, a 3rd century B.C. Greek geometer, it seemed useless to know that when sliced at varying angles cone produced other shapes than a circle, it later was shown to have great scientific value.  For the ellipse the main uses discovered for this slightly off circular shape was in engineering and predicting the orbits of bodies around a another object, such as a comet or planet, which were discovered to go in a elliptical orbit by Johannes Kepler.  Uses for ellipse were also found in engineering, like the Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capital building  The parabola was shown to be useful when it was discovered that most bodies with a initial velocity, when influence by gravity, move in parabolic path, which can be calculated with great accuracy. Parabolas are also used in devices that focus light and sound waves, such as parabolic reflectors, used in satellite dishes to focus a signal.  The hyperbola is used to form hyperboloids, which are used in gear transmission in cars to transmit motion further through the system. Once again this conic finds use in construction, with the building of nuclear cooling towers. It solves problems of strength and of minimal use of materials at the same time.

5. Sources  http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbconics.htm http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbconics.htm  ‘Deriving’ into Precalculus  http://www.pleacher.com/mp/mlessons/calculus/apphyper.html http://www.pleacher.com/mp/mlessons/calculus/apphyper.html  Austin  http://www.purplemath.com/modules/conics.htm http://www.purplemath.com/modules/conics.htm