Introduction to Conic Sections: Introduction

Did you know the planets travel around the sun in an elliptical pattern? Did you know that Parabolas are used to describe satellite dishes? We are surrounded by conic sections. Each conic section has a particular shape and a particular set of properties. In this section we are going to start our discussion of conic sections by reviewing the Distance and Midpoint Formulas and then we will introduce each of the conic sections.