Find the smallest possible area of an ellipse passing through (2,0),(0,3),(0,7), and (6,0).
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
Let Γ be an ellipse passing through A=(2,0),B=(0,3),C=(0,7),D=(6,0), and let P=(0,0) be the intersection of AD and BC. Area of ABCD Area of Γ is unchanged under an affine transformation, so we just have to minimize this quantity over situations where Γ is a circle and PDPA=31 and BCPB=73. In fact, we may assume that PA=7,PB=3,PC=7,PD=37. If ∠P=θ, then we can compute lengths to get r= Area of ABCD Area of Γ=π97⋅sin3θ32−207cosθ+21cos2θ Let x=cosθ. Then if we treat r as a function of x, 0=rr′=1−x23x+32−20x7+21x242x−207 which means that 21x3−40x7+138x−207=0. Letting y=x7 gives 0=3y3−40y2+138y−140=(y−2)(3y2−34y+70) The other quadratic has roots that are greater than 7, which means that the minimum ratio is attained when cosθ=x=7y=72. Plugging that back in gives that the optimum Area of ABCD Area of Γ is 8128π3, so putting this back into the original configuration gives Area of Γ≥956π3. If you want to check on Geogebra, this minimum occurs when the center of Γ is \left(\frac{8}{3}, \frac{7}{3}\right).
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