A lithotriper is used to disentergrate kidney stones. The patient is placed within an elliptical device with the kidney centered at one focus, while ultrasound waves from the other focus hit the walls and are reflected to the kidney stone, shattering the  stone. Suppose that the lenght of the major axis of the ellipse is 40 centimeters and the length of the minor axis of the ellipse is 20 centimeters. How far from the kidney stone should the electrode that sends the ultrasound waves be placed in order to shatter the stone?

College Algebra (MindTap Course List)
12th Edition
ISBN:9781305652231
Author:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Publisher:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Chapter7: Conic Sections And Quadratic Systems
Section7.2: The Ellipse
Problem 70E
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A lithotriper is used to disentergrate kidney stones. The patient is placed within an elliptical device with the kidney centered at one focus, while ultrasound waves from the other focus hit the walls and are reflected to the kidney stone, shattering the  stone. Suppose that the lenght of the major axis of the ellipse is 40 centimeters and the length of the minor axis of the ellipse is 20 centimeters. How far from the kidney stone should the electrode that sends the ultrasound waves be placed in order to shatter the stone?

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