CHAPTER 4

Second degree curves

1. Ellipse, Hyperbola, Parabola

In this chapter we consider second-degree curves as geometrical objects whose
equations can be derived by using some of the tools developed in the previous
chapter.

Circle. A circle C in a plane π, centred at a point F and of radius a > 0 can

be defined as the set of all points P in π lying at given distance a to F . If F and P
have coordinates (x0 , y0 ) and (x, y) respectively, where coordinates are represented
in some ON-system for π, then the equation of the circle C can be written
(x − x0 )2 + (y − y0 )2 = a2 .
If F is the origin, the equation reduces to
x 2 + y 2 = a2 .
We shall now discuss the other basic types of second degree curves: ellipse, hyper-
bola, and parabola.

Ellipse. The definition of an ellipse generalises the definition of a circle. Let

F1 and F2 be two points in a plane π and let a be a positive constant; we assume
that 2a is greater than the distance between F1 and F2 . The set of points P in π
with the property that the sum of the distances from P to F1 and from P to F2
equals to 2a is called an ellipse.

61
62 4. SECOND DEGREE CURVES

If we choose an ON-system in π such that the origin is the mid-point on the segment
F1 F2 , and the x-axis passes through the points F1 and F2 , then F1 and F2 have
coordinates (−c, 0) and (c, 0) for some real c. We can assume that c > 0.
The fact that the sum of distances from P = (x, y) to F1 and F2 equals 2a can be

written as
p p
(1) (x + c)2 + y 2 + (x − c)2 + y 2 = 2a.
Squaring the equation (1) leads to
p
(x + c)2 + (x − c)2 + 2y 2 + 2 ((x + c)2 + y 2 ) ((x − c)2 + y 2 ) = 4a2 .
Dividing by 2 and rearranging, this becomes
p
x2 + y 2 + c2 − 2a2 = − (x2 + y 2 + c2 + 2cx) (x2 + y 2 + c2 − 2cx).
Squaring again, we obtain that

2
2
x2 + y 2 + c2 − 4a2 x2 + y 2 + c2 + 4a4 = x2 + y 2 + c2 − 4c2 x2 ,

i.e.,
a2 − c 2 x 2 + a2 y 2 = a2 a2 − c 2 .

If we put b2 = a2 − c2 and divide with a2 b2 , this becomes

x2 y 2
(2) + 2 = 1.
a2 b
We have shown that each point (x, y) satisfying the root-equation (1) also satisfies
(2). By tracing back in the calculations, one can also verify that all solutions of (2)
satisfy (1). (Since we have squared several times, this is not immediate!) We have
shown that the ellipse is completely determined by the equation (2).
Notice that the ellipse (2) intersects the coordinate axes at the points (±a, 0) and
(0, ±b). The segments from the origin to these points are called the semi-axes of
the ellipse. The points F1 = (−c, 0) and F2 = (c, 0) are the foci of the ellipse.
Hyperbola. If we instead consider the set of points P in a plane π such that the
difference between the distances to two given points (“foci”) F1 and F2 is constant
= 2a, we get a curve known as a hyperbola. In a similar way to the case of the
ellipse, we can introduce an ON-system in π such that F1 = (−c, 0) and F2 = (c, 0)
for a number c > a. Hence the equation of the hyperbola becomes
p p
(3) (x + c)2 + y 2 − (x − c)2 + y 2 = ±2a.
Here the plus-sign shall be chosen if P = (x, y) is closer to F2 , and the minus-sign
if P is closer to F1 . The hyperbola is not connected, it has two branches.
 1. ELLIPSE, HYPERBOLA, PARABOLA 63

Calculations analogous to the case for the ellipse show that the equation of the
hyperbola can be written
x2 y 2
(4) − 2 = 1,
a2 b
where this time b2 = c2 − a2 .
Parabola. Let ` be a line in a plane π, and F a point in π, which is not on
`. The set of points P in π whose distance to ` equals the distance to F is called
a parabola. The point F is the focus and the line ` is called the directrix of the
parabola. Choose an ON-system in π such that the y-axis is parallel to `, the x-axis

passes through F , and the origin has equal distance a to F and to `. We shall prove
that the equation of the parabola in this ON-system becomes
(5) y 2 = 4ax.

pthat the distance from a point P = (x, y) to ` is x + a, while the

To show this, note
distance to F is (x − a)2 + y 2 . Squaring these distances leads to (5).
Remark 1. The parabola has an interesting optical property with many prac-
tical applications. Each light-ray parallel to the positive x-axis will, after reflection
in the parabola, pass through the same point F . A set of parallel light-rays are
thus focused to the point F . Conversely, if we place a source of light at F , this will
after reflection give rise to light-rays which are parallel to the x-axis.
64 4. SECOND DEGREE CURVES

In the case of the ellipse, one has instead that if a light source is placed at F1 , then
all light-rays will pass through F2 .
Remark 2. The ellipse, the hyperbola, and the parabola are all cases of so-
called conic sections. This name stems from the fact that all such curves can be
obtained as the intersection of a double cone with a suitable plane.
Remark 3. A natural generalisation of second-degree curves in a plane are
second-degree surfaces in the three-dimensional space, such as spheres, ellipsoids,
hyperboloids, cones and paraboloids. Second-degree surfaces will be studied in
your next course in Linear Algebra using quadratic forms. However, the equation
of a sphere can be derived using the same tools used above to express equations of
second-degree curves and we shall introduce it below.

Sphere. A sphere S centered at a given point F and of radius a is the set of

all points P in the 3-dimensional space, whose distance to F equals a ∈ R+ , i.e.,
S = {P ∈ R3 , kF P k = a}.
If F = (x0 , y0 , z0 ) and P = (x, y, z) in a given ON-system for the 3-dimensional
space, then we can write kF P k = a as
(x − x0 )2 + (y − y0 )2 + (z − z0 )2 = a2 .
We conclude this section with a couple of examples.

Example 1.

The plane π : 2x−2y+z = −1 intersects the sphere (x+3)2 +(y−1)2 +(z+2)2 = 25

along a circle C. Suppose that we want to determine the centre P and the radius
r of the intersection circle.

Note that the given sphere is centred at the point (−3, 1, −2), call it Q, and has
radius 5. Then the centre P of the intersection circle is the orthogonal projection
of the centre of the sphere onto the plane π. Consider the line ` through Q and
orthogonal to the plane π, that is

 x = −3 + 2t
`: y = 1 − 2t , t ∈ R.
z = −2 + t


Then P is the intersection point between ` and the plane π and it is given by
2(−3 + 2t) − 2(1 − 2t) + (−2 + t) = −1 ⇐⇒ 9t = 9 ⇐⇒ t = 1.
 1. ELLIPSE, HYPERBOLA, PARABOLA 65

For this value of t we get P = (−1, −1, −1).

To determine the radius r of the circle let R be an arbitrary point on the circle.
Then the triangle 4P QR has a right angle at P and by Pythagora’s theorem we
have that
kQP k2 + kP Rk2 = kQRk2 ⇐⇒ r2 + kQP k2 = 25.
We have that √
kQP k = k(2, −2, 1)k = 9 = 3.
2 2
Thus r = 25 − 3 = 16 and hence r = 4.

Example 2.

A ray of light emerging from the point A = (1, 0, 1) in the direction of the vector
(−1, −1, −1) hits a spherical mirror centred at the origin and of radius 1 at the
point P . Suppose that we are interested to determine a parametric equation of the
reflected ray as well as the coordinates of the point P . (Positive ON-system)

Let ` be the line through A = (1, 0, 1) with direction of the vector (−1, −1, −1),
that is ` : (x, y, z) = (1 − t, −t, 1 − t), t ∈ R. The point P where the ray of light
hits the given sphere x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 1 is one of the two intersection points between
` and the sphere, that lies closest to the point A. The intersection points are given
by:
1
(1 − t)2 + (−t)2 + (1 − t)2 = 1 ⇐⇒ 3t3 − 4t − 1 = 0 ⇐⇒ t = or t = 1.
3
1
Clearly, t = 3 gives the coordinates of the intersection point P closest to A, that
66 4. SECOND DEGREE CURVES

1
is, P = (2, −1, 2).
3
To determine a parametric equation of the reflected ray, we need to determine
another point on this line. Note that the reflected line `r is symmetric to ` with
respect to the normal line of the plane π tangent to the sphere at the point P .
The point A00 that is the reflection of A with respect to the plane π lies on `r . To
determine its coordinates, we determine first the orthogonal projection A0 of the
point A on the plane π. The point A0 is the intersection between π and the line `n
through A orthogonal to π.
1
Using that the directed segment OP = (2, −1, 2) is orthogonal to π and P ∈ π,
3
we write the corresponding point-normal equation of π:

2x − y + 2z = 3.

A parametric equation of the line `n is given by (x, y, z) = (1, 0, 1)+(2, −1, 2)t, t ∈ R
and the intersection point A0 = `n ∩ π is obtained from:
1
2(1 + 2t) − (−t) + 2(1 + 2t) = 3 ⇐⇒ 9t = −1 ⇐⇒ t = − .
9
2 1
The point A00 ∈ `n corresponds to t = − , that is A00 = (5, 2, 5). Then, the vector
9 9
associated to the directed segment
1 1 1
A00 P = (2, −1, 2) − (5, 2, 5) = (1, −5, 1)
3 9 9
 1. ELLIPSE, HYPERBOLA, PARABOLA 67

is a direction vector of `r . We can now write a parametric equation of `r :

1
(x, y, z) = (2, −1, 2) + t(1, −5, 1), t ∈ R.
3
1
(x, y, z) = 3 (2, −1, 2) + t(1, −5, 1), t ∈ R.
Exercises.
1. Determine the centres of circles which are tangent to the x-axis and which
pass through the points (0, 1) and (0, 9).

2. Determine the foci of the ellipses

a) 9x2 + 25y 2 = 225. b) 25x2 + 169y 2 = 4225.

3. Determine the equation of the ellipse which intersects the y-axis at the
points (0, ±2) and has foci at the points (±2, 0).

4. Let (x0 , y0 ) be a point on the ellipse x2 /a2 + y 2 /b2 = 1.

a) Show that the line x = x0 + αt, y = y0 + βt is tangent to the ellipse
if and only if αx0 /a2 + βy0 /b2 = 0.
b) Show that the point (x, y) is on the tangent of the ellipse at (x0 , y0 )
if and only if xx0 /a2 + yy0 /b2 = 1.

5. Find the foci of the hyperbolae

a) 16x2 − 9y 2 = 144. b) 3x2 − 5y 2 = 75.

6. Find the equation of the hyperbola which intersects the x-axis at the points
(±2, 0) and has foci at (±3, 0).

7. Find the equation of the parabola which is symmetric with respect to the x-
axis and which passes through the points (0, 0) and (27, 18). Also determine
the focus.

8. The sphere of radius 5 centred at the point (−3, 1, −2) intersects the plane
π : 2x − 2y + z = −1 along a circle C. Does the intersection point between
the plane π and the line ` (x, y, z) = (2 + t, 2 + 2t, 2 + 4t), t ∈ R lie inside
this circle? (ON-system assumed.)

9. Let M be the plane 2x + y + 2z = 27, S the sphere of radius 15 centred

at the origin and let C be the circle of intersection between M and S.
Determine the points in M , S and C that lie closest to the point (33, 30, 6).
(ON-system assumed.)
68 4. SECOND DEGREE CURVES

2. General Second-Degree Equations

A second-degree equation in the variables x and y is an equation of the form
(1) Ax2 + Bxy + Cy 2 + Dx + Ey = F.
Now suppose that x and y are coordinates with respect to an ON-system Oe1 e2
in the plane. We shall investigate the geometric meaning of the equation (1).
In the preceding section, we saw that ellipses, hyperbolae, and parabolae are all
described by second-degree equations. We shall here show that, except for certain
“pathological” cases, these three basic types of curves can be used to describe all
second-degree curves.
If A = B = C = 0, then (1) is a first-degree equation
Dx + Ey = F.
This is (unless D = E = 0) the equation for a line. In the sequel, we can hence
assume that at least one of the coefficients A, B, C are non-zero.
The main idea for our solution of (1) involves changing coordinates to a new ON-
system, where the equation has a simpler form. We start by showing that, by a
suitable rotation of the basis vectors, we can get rid of the coefficient B for xy.
Thus we introduce new basis vectors e01 , e02 by
e01 = cos θ e1 + sin θ e2 ,
e02 = − sin θ e1 + cos θ e2 .
It is easy to see that e01 , e02 is an orthonormal basis (since e1 , e2 is so).
Let (x0 , y 0 ) be the coordinates for a point P relative to the system Oe01 e02 . Then
−→
OP = (x0 cos θ − y 0 sin θ) e1 + (x0 sin θ + y 0 cos θ) e2 .
If (x, y) are the coordinates of P in the “old” system Oe1 e2 , we hence have
x = x0 cos θ − y 0 sin θ.
y = x0 sin θ + y 0 cos θ.
Substituting these expressions into (1), we get an equation of the form
2 2
A0 (x0 ) + B 0 x0 y 0 + C 0 (y 0 ) + D0 x0 + E 0 y 0 = F,
where the coefficient B 0 for x0 y 0 is given by
B 0 = −2A cos θ sin θ + B(cos2 θ − sin2 θ) + 2C cos θ sin θ
(2)
= B cos 2θ − (A − C) sin 2θ,
where we have used the familiar “double angle” formulae for cos and sin.
 2. GENERAL SECOND-DEGREE EQUATIONS 69

If B = 0 no rotation is necessary, and we can take θ = 0. If B 6= 0 we choose θ

such that
A−C
cot 2θ = .
B
The relation (2) then shows that B 0 = 0. In all cases, our new coordinate system
turns our equation into the type
2 2
(3) A0 (x0 ) + C 0 (y 0 ) + D0 x0 + E 0 y 0 = F,
for suitable constants A0 , C 0 , D0 , E 0 . Since we have assumed that at least one of the
numbers A, B, C are not zero, it is easy to see that at least one of A0 , C 0 are not
zero.
Case 1. We first consider the case when both A0 and C 0 are non-zero. We can
then complete squares in (3) to obtain
2 2
D0 E0 (D0 )2 (E 0 )2
 
0 0 0 0
(4) A x + + C y + = + + F.
2A0 2C 0 4A0 4C 0
We then make a new change of coordinates by
D0 E0
x00 = x0 + , y 00
= y 0
+ .
2A0 2C 0
This means that the origin in the old system is moved to the point which has
x0 y 0 -coordinates (−D0 /2A0 , −E 0 /2C 0 ). If
(D0 )2 (E 0 )2
F0 = + + F,
4A0 4C 0
then (4) becomes
(5) A0 (x00 )2 + C 0 (y 00 )2 = F 0 .
If A0 and C 0 are both positive, then (5) describes an ellipse, a point, or the empty
set, depending on whether F 0 > 0, F 0 = 0, or F 0 < 0. The case then A0 and C 0 are
both negative can be reduced to the positive case by multiplying both sides of the
equation by −1. If A0 and C 0 have opposite signs, we can after multiplication with
a suitable constant assume that A0 > 0 and C 0 = −1. The equation (5) is then
A0 (x00 )2 − (y 00 )2 = F 0 .
If F 00 6= 0 this means a hyperbola. If F 0 = 0 we get
√
y 00 = ± A0 · x00 ,
which means a “degenerate hyperbola”, or rather: two intersecting straight lines.
70 4. SECOND DEGREE CURVES

Case 2. Now suppose that one of the numbers A0 , C 0 in (3) are zero. We can
w.l.o.g. assume that A0 = 0 and C 0 6= 0. Then (3) says that
(6) C 0 (y 0 )2 + D0 x0 + E 0 y 0 = F.
If D0 = 0, then the equation (6) becomes independent of x0 . The equation then
means two lines parallel to the x0 -axis, or one line parallel to the x0 -axis, or the
empty set, depending on the number of different real solutions of the second-degree
equation C 0 (y 0 )2 + E 0 y 0 = F . If D0 6= 0, the equation (6) can be written
2
E0 (E 0 )2
  
0 0 0 0 F
C y + +D x − 0 − = 0.
2C 0 D 4C 0 D0
If we now put
F (E 0 )2 E0
x00 = x0 −− , y 00
= y 0
+ 4C 0 D0 ,
D0 4C 0 D0 2C 0
we see that (6) transforms into the equation
(7) C 0 (y 00 )2 + D0 x00 = 0.
This last equation means a parabola: if C 0 and D0 have equal signs, it surrounds
the negative x00 -axis, otherwise it surrounds the positive x00 -axis.
The above discussion characterises all possible second-degree curves. Except for
ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola, there are the following “pathological” cases: two
intersecting straight lines, one or two parallel straight lines, a point, the whole plane
(when A = B = C = D = E = F = 0), and the empty set.
Exercises.
10. Prove that each of the following equations describes an ellipse. Also de-
termine the lengths of the semi-axes.
a) 17x2 − 16xy + 17y 2 = 225.
b) 3x2 + 2xy + 3y 2 = 8
c) 9x2 + y 2 − 18x + 4y + 4 = 0
d) 2x2 + 3y 2 + 12x + 12 = 0.

3. Answers to exercises
1. (±3, 5).
2. a) (±4, 0). b) (±12, 0).
2 2
3. x + 2y = 8. √
5. a) (±5, 0). b) (± 40, 0).
6. 5x2 − 4y 2 = 20.
7. y 2 = 12x; focus (3, 0).
 3. ANSWERS TO EXERCISES 71

8. Yes.
9. (15, 21, −12),(11, 10, 2)
√ and (10, 11, −2). √ √
10. a) 5 and 3. b) 2 and 2. c) 3 and 1. d) 3 and 2.