6.6 The focus-Directrix Property
Although the Greeks defined the conic sections as sections of cones, it is customary, in collage courses in analytic geometry, to define them by the focus-directrix property. Establish the following lemma (a) and then complete the simple proof in (b) that any section of a right circular cone possesses the focus-directrix property.
(a) The lengths of any two line segments from a point to a plane are inversely proportional to the sines of the angles which the ling segments make with the plane.
(b) Denote the plane of the section of the right circular cone by p. Let a sphere touch the cone along a circle whose plane we shall call q and also touch plane p at point F (see Figure 42). Let planes p and q intersect in line d. From P, any point on the conic section, drop a perpendicular PR on line d. Let the element of the cone through P cut plane q in point E. Finally, let a be the angle between planes p and q and b the angle and element of the cone makes with plane q. Show that PF/PR=PE/PR=(sin a)/(sin B)=e, and constant, Thus F is a focus, d the corresponding directrix, and e the eccentricity of the conic section. (This simple and elegant approach was discovered around the first quarter-mark of the nineteenth century by the two Belaian mathematicians Adolphe Quetelet (1797-1874) and Gerninal Dandelin (1794-1847)