How do you find the points on the parabola 2x=y^2 that are closest to the point (3,0)?

hotonglamoz

hotonglamoz

Answered question

2022-09-20

How do you find the points on the parabola 2 x = y 2 that are closest to the point (3,0)?

Answer & Explanation

seguidora1e

seguidora1e

Beginner2022-09-21Added 8 answers

Points are (2.2) and (2, -2)
Let there be any point (x,y) on this parabola. The distance 's' of this point from point (3,0) is given by s 2 = ( x - 3 ) 2 + y 2 . Differentiate both sides w.r.t x
2 s d s d x = 2 ( x - 3 ) + 2 y d y d x . For minimum distance d s d x =0, hence (x-3)+ y d y d x = 0 ,
Or y d y d x =3-x
Differentiating the equation y 2 =2x with respect to x, it would be y d y d x = 1
It is thus 3-x=1, x=2, and then y=2, -2. The nearest points are (2,2) and (2,-2)
koraby2bc

koraby2bc

Beginner2022-09-22Added 2 answers

An alternative starts the same as bp's solution:
Let (x,y) be any point on this parabola. The distance 's' of this point from point (3,0) is given by s 2 = ( x - 3 ) 2 + y 2
Note that, since (x,y) is on the graph, we must have y 2 = 2 x , so
s 2 = ( x - 3 ) 2 + 2 x
Our job now is to minimize the function:
f ( x ) = ( x - 3 ) 2 + 2 x = x 2 - 4 x + 9
(It should be clear that we can minimize the distance by minimizing the square of the distance.)
To minimize, differentiate, find and test critical numbers.
f ( x ) = 2 x - 4 , so the critical number is 2
f ( 2 ) = 2 is positive, so f(2) is a minimum.
The question asks for points on the graph, so we finish by finding points on the graph at which x=2
2 ( 2 ) = y 2 has solutions y = ± 2
The points are: (2,2) and (2,−2)

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