Hyperbolas

A hyperbola is an open curve with two branches, the intersection of a plane with both halves of a double cone.

One example of a hyperbola on the Cartesian plane is the one shown in the above image on the right. Notice that a hyperbola looks like the mirror image of two parabolas. All hyperbola have certain characteristics: a center ((0, 0) in the above hyperbola), two vertices that are equadistant from the center ( and (0,2) in the above hyperbola), foci (located within each branch), and 0,2 two asymptotes that intersect at the center of the hyperbola (in the graph of the hyperbola above, the asymptotes are y 2x and y 2x ). Each vertex lies on what is called the transverse axis of the hyperbola, which is the line going from one vertex, through the center, to the other vertex. Recall that an asymptote is a line that a curve approaches, but never reaches the branches of the above hyperbola will approach y 2x and y 2x but never reach them as the value of x both increases and decreases without bound (as x and x ) 1. What is the center of the hyperbola given below? What are the vertices? Estimate the formulas for the asymptotes.

Like ellipses, hyperbolas also have foci. In hyperbolas, the foci are located inside each branch of the hyperbola (farther from the center than the vertices) and are equidistant from the center. To demonstrate the characteristics of a hyperbola, a box is often drawn into the graph (which is not actually a part of the graph of the hyperbola) to demonstrate key relationships.

For any values of a, b, and c in a horizontally-oriented hyperbola, a is the distance from the center of the hyperbola to each vertex (and 2a is the width of the invisible box, which is the length of the transverse axis) 2b is the height of the invisible box c is the distance of each focus point from the center of the hyperbola (2c is also the length of the diagonal of the invisible box) the corners of the invisible box always lie on the asymptotes of the hyperbola In general, the standard form for the equation of a horizontally oriented hyperbola is , where the point (x, y) is any point along the hyperbola, (h, k) is the center of the hyperbola, and a and b are as defined above. 2. Use the above image to answer the following questions. a. Determine the slope of the asymptotes in terms of a and b. Explain your reasoning.
( ) ( )

b. Describe a method for determining the formula for the asymptotes and explain why your method works. (Keep in mind that the asymptotes always pass through the center of the hyperbola, (h, k).)

3. If the hyperbola is vertically oriented, the standard form of its equation is

, where

the point (x, y) is any point along the hyperbola and (h, k) is the center of the hyperbola. a is again the distance from the center of the hyperbola to each vertex (2a is now the height of the box), but 2b is now the length of the box instead of the height. Describe a method for determining the slope of the asymptotes, given the above form of an equation of a hyperbola. How does this method compare to the one you described in (2b) above?

4.

x 2 y 1 Suppose you are given the equation

2

16 9 a. Is the hyperbola horizontally or vertically aligned?

1 for a hyperbola.

b. Determine the center and the two vertices of the hyperbola.

c. Determine the equations of each of the asymptotes of the hyperbola.

d. Sketch a graph of the hyperbola on the axes below.

5. Suppose you are given the following graph of a hyperbola.

a. Determine the center and vertices of the hyperbola.

b. Estimate the asymptotes of the hyperbola.

c. Use the information in parts a and b to determine the equation of the hyperbola in standard form. (Hint: Use your answers to Question 2a)

There are times when the equation of a hyperbola is not given in standard form. When this is the case, we can convert the equation into standard form by using the method of completing the square as we did when converting an equation of an ellipse to standard form. (Converting the equation to standard form allows us to easily generate the hyperbolas graph.) Suppose we are given the equation of a hyperbola as 12y2 x2 32y 4x 4y2 16 . The steps to re-write the equation in standard form follow:

x 4x 4 4 16y
2 2 2 2

x 2 4x 16 y 2 32 y 16 4x 16 y 2 2 y 16
2

Combine like terms; Add 16 to both sides Factor the leading term out of each grouping Complete the square in each grouping Distribute the constant in each grouping Subtract 12 from both sides Divide both sides by 4 Re-write denominators in squared form

2 y 1 1 16
2

x 2 4 16 y 1 16 16 x 2 16 y 1 4 x 2 4 y 1 1
2 2 2

x 2 y 1 1
2 2

22

2
1
2

In this form, we can see that the hyperbola is horizontally aligned and has a center of (2,1) . The vertices are 2 units from the center, as are the points 4,1 and 0,1. We can determine the asymptotes by first determining the slope of the asymptotes. In this case, the slopes of the two asymptotes are
1 1 and since 4 4

1 2 1 . We can determine the formulas for the asymptotes by using the point-slope formula for a line since 2 4 1 both asymptotes must pass through the point (2,1) and one of the asymptotes as a slope of and the other 4 1 1 1 1 3 asymptote has a slope of . We have the asymptotes y x and y x . (Verify this for 4 2 4 4 2 yourself.)

We can now sketch the hyperbola that has a center of (2,1) and asymptotes y

1 1 1 3 x and y x . 4 2 4 2

6. Given the equation of a hyperbola, 5y2 x2 2x 21 2x2 4y2 54y 50 , a. Re-write the equation in standard form.

b. Determine the center, vertices, and asymptotes.

c. Sketch the hyperbola on the axes below.