Halley's comet has an elliptical orbit with the sun at one focus. Its orbit shown below is given approximately by $$r=\frac{ 10.71 }{ 1 + 0.883\sin \Theta } $$ In the formula, r is measured in astronomical units. (One astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun, approximately 93 million miles.) Find the distance from Halley's comet to the sun at its greatest distance from the sun. Round to the nearest hundredth of an astronomical unit and the nearest million miles.

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anonymous · Answer

attachment

anonymous · Answer

May someone please explain? I don't know how to solve this... /.\

mathmate · Answer

Can you tell me what is the maximum and minimum values of sin(x)?

mathmate · Answer

You could also check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine

anonymous · Answer

For both of them?

anonymous · Answer

well before I try that...what numbers are in between 0 and pi/2?

mathmate · Answer

Yes, maximum=?,  minimum=?

mathmate · Answer

For any x, but the max/min will lie between 0 and 2pi.

mathmate · Answer

Hint:
Anyway, think of the function
$\large r=\frac{ 10.71 }{ 1 + 0.883\sin \Theta }$
If sin$\theta$ can only vary between -1 and 1, when does r take on the largest value?

anonymous · Answer

ummmm 1 o.o and sorry I got distracted >.<