1986 AHSME Problems/Problem 18

Problem

A plane intersects a right circular cylinder of radius $1$ forming an ellipse. If the major axis of the ellipse is $50\%$ longer than the minor axis, the length of the major axis is

$\textbf{(A)}\ 1\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{3}{2}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 2\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{9}{4}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 3$

Solution

We note that we can draw the minor axis to see that because the minor axis is the minimum distance between two opposite points on the ellipse, we can draw a line through two opposite points of the cylinder, and so the minor axis is $2(1) = 2$ . Therefore, our answer is $2(1.5) = 3$ , and so our answer is $\boxed{E}$ .

1986 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 17	Followed by Problem 19
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1986 AHSME Problems/Problem 18

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