Tangent to an Ellipse

This was an introduction to more complex uses of differentiation, which will lead into implicit differentiation. It was an excellent opportunity to explore concepts of generalization with students, and to illustrate how using the technology helps consolidate understanding. Our discussion led into consideration of a general ellipse. A follow-on activity would be to come up with the general function for the tangent to the general ellipse.

 

David Miles

 
Resource Type
Activity
Tags
conditional  differentiation  ellipse  exploration  implicit  piecewise  tangent  tangent-line 
Target Group (Age)
15 – 18
Language
English (United Kingdom)
 
 
GeoGebra version
5.0
Views
5278
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