Given an ellipse C: (with ) whose left and right vertices are A and B, respectively, and the major axis is 8 units long. Point T is on the ellipse, and the product of the slopes of lines TA and TB is .
(Ⅰ) Find the equation of the ellipse C.
(Ⅱ) Let O be the origin, and a variable line through point M(0, 2) intersects ellipse C at points P and Q. Find the range of .
Solution
(Ⅰ) Since the length of the major axis is 8, we have , thus . Without loss of generality, we assume the foci of the ellipse are on the x-axis, so the left and right vertices of the ellipse are A(-a, 0) and B(a, 0), that is, A(-4, 0) and B(4, 0).
Denote point T on the ellipse as T(x, y). The slope of line TA, , can be represented as , and the slope of line TB, , can be represented as . Given that their product is , we get .
Solve the above equation, and we have . Substituting into the ellipse equation and solving for gives us the ellipse equation: or simply, .
(Ⅱ) When the slope of line PQ exists, let's assume the equation of line PQ is . Points P and Q on the ellipse can be denoted as and , respectively. By substituting into the ellipse equation, we obtain a quadratic equation . From this, we have and .
Therefore, .
The value range of is .
When the slope of line PQ does not exist (i.e., the line is vertical), the value of is . Combining this with the previously derived range, we can conclude that the range of is .