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Maximum Truck Height in Semi-Elliptical Tunnel

The tunnel's roof is shaped like a semi-ellipse with a semi-major axis of 4.5m and a focal length of 7m. A truck with a width of 2.5m can safely pass through the tunnel with a maximum height of 2.717m. The calculations involve using the ellipse equation to determine the height at the truck's position.

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Dũng Nguyễn
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2 views1 page

Maximum Truck Height in Semi-Elliptical Tunnel

The tunnel's roof is shaped like a semi-ellipse with a semi-major axis of 4.5m and a focal length of 7m. A truck with a width of 2.5m can safely pass through the tunnel with a maximum height of 2.717m. The calculations involve using the ellipse equation to determine the height at the truck's position.

Uploaded by

Dũng Nguyễn
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Problem 4. The roof of a tunnel is shaped like a semi-ellipse.

The ellipse has a focal


length of 7m and the sum of distances from any point on the ellipse to the two foci is 9m.
A truck with a cargo width of 2.5m is passing through. What is the maximum height the
truck can have to safely pass through the tunnel?
Solution:
The major axis of the ellipse is horizontal. Given:

2a = 9 ⇒ a = 4.5 (semi-major axis)

2c = 7 ⇒ c = 3.5 (distance from center to each focus)


Using the ellipse identity:
√
c2 = a2 − b2 ⇒ b2 = a2 − c2 = 4.52 − 3.52 = 20.25 − 12.25 = 8 ⇒ b = 8 = 2.828

The standard form of the ellipse equation:

x2 y 2 x2 y2
+ = 1 ⇒ + =1
a2 b2 20.25 8
The truck is 2.5m wide, so from the center of the ellipse to one side of the truck is:
2.5
x= = 1.25
2
Substitute into the ellipse equation:

(1.25)2 y 2 1.5625 y 2 y2 √
+ =1⇒ + =1⇒ = 1−0.0772 = 0.9228 ⇒ y 2 = 8×0.9228 = 7.3824 ⇒ y = 7.382
20.25 8 20.25 8 8

The correct answer is A. 2.717m

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