Suppose that and that the line with equation intersects the parabola with equation at points and . If is the origin and the area of is 80, then what is the slope of the line?
Solution
First, we find the coordinates of the points and in terms of by finding the points of intersection of the graphs with equations and . Equating values of , we obtain or . We rewrite the left side as which allows us to factor and obtain and so or . Since , is in the second quadrant and is in the first quadrant, then has -coordinate (which is negative). Since lies on , then its -coordinate is and so the coordinates of are . Since lies on and has -coordinate , then its -coordinate is and so the coordinates of are . Our next step is to determine the area of in terms of . Since the area of is numerically equal to 80, this will give us an equation for which will allow us to find the slope of the line. To find the area of in terms of , we drop perpendiculars from and to and , respectively, on the -axis. The area of is equal to the area of trapezoid minus the areas of and . Trapezoid has parallel bases and and perpendicular height . Since the coordinates of are , then . Since the coordinates of are , then . Also, . Thus, the area of trapezoid is . is right-angled at and so has area . is right-angled at and so has area . Combining these, the area of equals . Since this area equals 80, then or and so . This means that the slope of the line is which equals 6.