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A cross section of a nuclear cooling tower is a hyperbola with equation
x2 / 902 - y2 / 1302 = 1.
The tower is 450 ft tall, and the distance from the top of the tower to the center of the hyperbola is half the distance from the base of the tower to the center of the hyperbola. Find the diameter of the top and the base of the tower.
The eccentricity of a hyperbola is defined as e = c > a. For a hyperbola, c > a > 0, so e > 1 when e is close to 1, a hyperbola appears to be very narrow as the eccentricity increases, the hyperbola becomes "wider." |
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