Question

The length of the red line segment is 8 and the length of the blue line segment is 4. How long is the major axis of the eclipse?

Answer 1

The major axis of the eclipse is 12 units long

The given parameters can be represented as:

$Red = 8$

$Blue = 4$

See attachment for illustration

To solve this question, we make use of the following theorem

The distance between a point and the foci sums up to the major axis

This translates to:

$Major\ axis = Red + Blue$

$Major\ axis = 8 + 4$

$Major\ axis = 12$