A small airplane with enough fuel to fly 600 miles safely will take off from airport A and land at airport B, 450 miles away.
a. Reason The region in which the airplane can fly is bounded by an ellipse. Explain why this is so.
b. Calculate Let (0, 0) represent the center of the ellipse. Find the coordinates of each airport. airport A airport B
c. Apply Suppose the plane flies from airport A straight past airport B to a vertex of the ellipse and then straight back to airport B. How far does the plane fly? Use your answer to find the coordinates of the vertex.
d. Model Write an equation of the ellipse.