Question on Parametric Equations

Question

anonymous · Answer

attachment

ganeshie8 · Answer

where are you stuck ?

anonymous · Answer

I am stuck on the second part

ganeshie8 · Answer

Oh so you have finished part a is it

anonymous · Answer

yes i have finished part a, i just don't know how to do part b

ganeshie8 · Answer

the first thought that comes to me is to find the slopes of OP, OQ and set their product equal to -1 :

OP*OQ = -1

you may get some relation between p and q

ganeshie8 · Answer

which you can plug in the equation of PQ to eliminate p, q

ganeshie8 · Answer

O = (0, 0)
P = (ap^2, 2ap)
Q = (aq^2, 2aq)

you can find the slopes OP and OQ right?

anonymous · Answer

Yep, alright I got it. Thanks for your help!

ganeshie8 · Answer

good :) just an observation :  the wording in the question is bit misleading - PQ is a chord (line segment), but the question claims the equation represents the PQ segment which is somewhat wrong as you cannot represent a segment with an equation of infinitely long line