Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 9 - Review - Exercises - Page 635: 13

Answer

The orthogonal trajectories of the family of curves $$ y=ke^{x} $$ are $$ x=C-\frac{1}{2} y^{2} $$

Work Step by Step

To find the orthogonal trajectories of the family of curves $$ y=ke^{x} $$ First, we differentiate both sides: $$ \frac{d}{d x}(y)=\frac{d}{d x}\left(k e^{x}\right) \Rightarrow y^{\prime}=k e^{x}=y, $$ An orthogonal trajectory is the negative reciprocal of the tangent line slope. So the orthogonal trajectories must have: $$ y^{\prime}=-\frac{1}{y} \Rightarrow \frac{d y}{d x}=-\frac{1}{y} $$ We write the equation in terms of differentials and integrate both sides: $$ y d y=-d x \Rightarrow \int y d y=-\int d x $$ $ \Rightarrow $ $$ \frac{1}{2} y^{2}=-x+C \Rightarrow x=C-\frac{1}{2} y^{2}, $$ Which are parabolas with a horizontal axis and $ C $ is an arbitrary constant. So the orthogonal trajectories of the family of curves $$ y=ke^{x} $$ are $$ x=C-\frac{1}{2} y^{2} $$
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