MHB Kaleigh's question at Yahoo Answers involving eliminating a parameter

  • Thread starter Thread starter MarkFL
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Parameter
Click For Summary
The discussion centers on finding the equation in the xy-plane for the parametric equations x = cos(t) and y = sec(t). By multiplying these equations, the relationship xy = 1 is derived, which can also be expressed as y = 1/x. This provides a clear equation that represents the graph in the xy-plane. The conversation encourages further exploration of parametric equations and invites additional questions on the topic. The focus remains on the mathematical process of eliminating the parameter t to find the desired equation.
Mathematics news on Phys.org
Hello Kaleigh,

We are given the parametric equations:

$$x=\cos(t)$$

$$y=\sec(t)$$

One way we may eliminate the parameter $t$ is to multiply the two equations together, giving:

$$xy=1$$

We may choose to write this as:

$$y=\frac{1}{x}$$

To Kaleigh and any other guests viewing this topic, I invite and encourage you to post other parametric equations questions in our http://www.mathhelpboards.com/f21/ forum.

Best Regards,

Mark.