Elipse question

Question

The distance of Amateru from its star, epsilon Tauri, ranges from  985 million mi to  996million mi. Find the equation of its elliptical orbit where the star is one of the foci. Assume that the center is the origin and its major axis is the y axis.

Answer 1

The standard form of an equation for an ellipse centered at the origin is x/a² + y/b² = 1, where a is the distance from the origin to the edge of the ellipse on the x axis and b is the distance from the origin to the edge of the ellipse on the y axis. Since the ellipse has y as the major axis, a = 985 and b = 996.

Thus the equation is x/985² + y/996² = 1.

Vahan