A carpenter wishes to construct an elliptical table top from a sheet of plywood, 4 ft by 8 ft. He will trace out the ellipse using the “thumbtack and string” method. What length of string should he use, and how far apart should the tacks be located, if the ellipse is to be the largest possible that can be cut out of the plywood sheet?

Calculus: Early Transcendentals
8th Edition
ISBN:9781285741550
Author:James Stewart
Publisher:James Stewart
Chapter1: Functions And Models
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1RCC: (a) What is a function? What are its domain and range? (b) What is the graph of a function? (c) How...
icon
Related questions
Question

(11.2) A carpenter wishes to construct an elliptical table top from a sheet of
plywood, 4 ft by 8 ft. He will trace out the ellipse using the “thumbtack and
string” method. What length of string should he use, and how far apart should the
tacks be located, if the ellipse is to be the largest possible that can be cut out of
the plywood sheet?

Expert Solution
trending now

Trending now

This is a popular solution!

steps

Step by step

Solved in 3 steps

Blurred answer
Recommended textbooks for you
Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Calculus
ISBN:
9781285741550
Author:
James Stewart
Publisher:
Cengage Learning
Thomas' Calculus (14th Edition)
Thomas' Calculus (14th Edition)
Calculus
ISBN:
9780134438986
Author:
Joel R. Hass, Christopher E. Heil, Maurice D. Weir
Publisher:
PEARSON
Calculus: Early Transcendentals (3rd Edition)
Calculus: Early Transcendentals (3rd Edition)
Calculus
ISBN:
9780134763644
Author:
William L. Briggs, Lyle Cochran, Bernard Gillett, Eric Schulz
Publisher:
PEARSON
Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Calculus
ISBN:
9781319050740
Author:
Jon Rogawski, Colin Adams, Robert Franzosa
Publisher:
W. H. Freeman
Precalculus
Precalculus
Calculus
ISBN:
9780135189405
Author:
Michael Sullivan
Publisher:
PEARSON
Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions
Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions
Calculus
ISBN:
9781337552516
Author:
Ron Larson, Bruce H. Edwards
Publisher:
Cengage Learning