Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A designer is drawing the cross-section of a headlight reflector. She places the axis of the reflector along the -axis, with the lamp end at the origin, and measures and in centimetres. The curve must have a constant sub-normal. The sub-normal is the length along the -axis from the foot of the perpendicular, dropped from a point of the curve, to the point where the normal meets the axis. It is at every point. The curve lies above the axis, so , and it passes through the point . She writes and integrates it to get . Find the constant , the height of the curve at , and the distance of the focus of the parabola from the vertex, in centimetres. The parabola has its focus at distance from the vertex.
To find orthogonal trajectories, form without the constant, then solve . The tangent meets the axes at and . The sub-tangent is and the sub-normal is .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. The sub-normal is in centimetres, and the curve passes through .
Plan. Integrate, fix the constant, then evaluate and compare with .
Step 1. Integrate. , so , which is .
Step 2. The constant. At : , so . The curve is .
Step 3. The height. At : , so .
Step 4. The focus. Comparing with gives , so .
Answer: , at , and the focus is from the vertex.
Check. At the slope is . Then , as required.
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