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Exercise 5.6 · Q18

Q.Area of the greatest rectangle inscribed in the ellipse x2a2+y2b2=1\dfrac{x^2}{a^2}+\dfrac{y^2}{b^2}=1 is

(1) 2ab2ab
(2) abab
(3) ab\sqrt{ab}
(4) ab\dfrac ab
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Using the ellipse's own parametrisation for a corner of the inscribed rectangle turns this into a one-variable calculus optimisation (or, even faster, a direct AM-GM/double-angle bound).

Step 1. Parametrise a corner. By symmetry, an axis-aligned rectangle inscribed in the ellipse has corners (±acos⁡θ,±bsin⁡θ)(\pm a\cos\theta,\pm b\sin\theta) for some θ\theta.

Step 2. Area as a function of θ\theta. …

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