# Prove that for the ellipse $Ax^2+Bxy+Cy^2=1$ , the area is equal to $\frac{2\pi}{\sqrt{4AC-B^2}}$

The question: You know that if $B^2-4AC \lt 0$ the equation $Ax^2+Bxy+Cy^2=1$ represents an ellipse. You also know that if $2a$ and $2b$ are the major and minor axis of the ellipse respectively, its area is $\pi ab$. Show that the area is also $\frac{2\pi}{\sqrt{4AC-B^2}}$.

• Solve the equation for $y$ in terms of $x$. Integrate the upper value minus the lower value, over the interval where the solutions are real. – GEdgar Nov 1 '17 at 13:38
• How do i get rid of the shared value $Bxy$ ?? – Dahen Nov 1 '17 at 13:44
• Solve for y in terms of $x$ ... quadratic formula ... $$Cy^2 + (Bx)y + (Ax^2-1) = 0 \\ y = \frac{-Bx\pm\sqrt{4C-(4AC-B^2)x^2}}{2C}$$ – GEdgar Nov 1 '17 at 15:22
• Ohhh okay thanks, I'll try that! – Dahen Nov 1 '17 at 18:41
• For future questions, please provide more background information. When there are multiple ways to attack a problem, like here, it’s hard to give you an answer you’ll understand without knowing what you’ve got to work with. – amd Nov 1 '17 at 19:39

Hint For a linear transformation $T : \Bbb R^2 \to \Bbb R^2$ given by $$\pmatrix{u\\v} = \pmatrix{a&b\\c&d} \pmatrix{x\\y} ,$$ the areas of a (nice) region $E \subset \Bbb R^2$ (e.g., our ellipse) and its image $T(E) \subset \Bbb R^2$ are related by $$\textrm{area}(T(E)) = |{\det T}| \,\textrm{area}(E) .$$ On the other hand, we know that there is a linear transformation $T$ that maps our ellipse to the unit ball, and so for such a transformation rearranging the previous equation gives $$\textrm{area}(E) = \frac{\textrm{area}(T(E))}{|{\det T}|} = \frac{\pi}{|{\det T}|} .$$ So, we need only write $|{\det T}|$ in terms of $A, B, C$, and in particular show that $$|{\det T}| = |a d - b c| = \sqrt{4 A C - B^2} .$$
Additional hint Substituting using the transformation formula for $T$ gives that in $xy$-coordinates the unit circle is $$(a^2 + c^2) x^2 + 2(ab + cd) x y + (b^2 + d^2) y^2 .$$ Thus, the desired transformation satisfies $$A = a^2 + c^2, \quad B = 2 (a b + c d), \quad C = b^2 + d^2.$$
• What course are you taking? If it's the integral symbols (calculus) that you find daunting, they're not really necessary: It's enough to know that, given a linear transformation $T$, the areas of the regions $E$ and $T(E)$ are related by $\textrm{area}(T(E)) = |{\det T}| \textrm{area}(E)$. (In fact, perhaps I'll edit the answer to reflect this.) By design, in our case $T(E)$ is a unit circle, so $\textrm{T(E)} = \pi$, which is enough to give the second display equation. – Travis Willse Nov 1 '17 at 21:05