Conic section

[Mathwithmenno2005]

For an assignment I need to find a conic section in the nature and make a picture of it, but I do not really get what it is.

How and is there an conic section in this picture I made?

Thanks!

 

[pka]

That is a picture of an old egg cup holding what would have been a soft-boiled egg.
The cup holding the egg is known as a paraboloid.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

For an assignment I need to find a conic section in the nature and make a picture of it, but I do not really get what it is.

How and is there an conic section in this picture I made?

Thanks!

That is a three-dimensional figure, while conic sections are two-dimensional; but if we take the "cup" as a paraboloid, that means a vertical cross-section through it would be a parabola, while a horizontal cross-section would be a circle (or perhaps an ellipse). In any case, of course, it is rather rough and approximate!

Of course, this isn't exactly "in nature". But nature would have the same sort of roughness to it.

 

[The Highlander]

For an assignment I need to find a conic section in the nature and make a picture of it, but I do not really get what it is.

How and is there an conic section in this picture I made?

Thanks!

If you take a carrot and cut the top off it, that would give you a (rough) cone produced in ‘nature’.

What would you see if you cut through it horizontally (A: a circle) but what if you were to cut through it at an ‘angle’ (B)?

​

There are other 'options' that would produce different "sections" too; I suggest you Google “Conic Sections”.

 

[JeffM]

Mathematics is an idealized world of the human imagination rather than nature. Probably the best you can do are planetary orbits around the sun, which are very close to ellipses.

 

[Cubist]

Mathematics is an idealized world of the human imagination rather than nature. Probably the best you can do are planetary orbits around the sun, which are very close to ellipses.

The timing of this comment is excellent, since there's an unusual photo (or just observation) opportunity at the moment if you can get up just before sunrise. Just Google "planets in a line". The planets will appear like a line of bright stars in the East, just pinpricks of light on a photo. However, the explanation of the photo should be interesting. Of course the outline of the planets themselves would appear approximately circular IF viewed through a telescope. And Saturn's ring would probably appear as an ellipse.

I love the other comments/ suggestions here too.

And @Mathwithmenno2005 photo is very good.

 

[The Highlander]

If you take a carrot and cut the top off it, that would give you a (rough) cone produced in ‘nature’.

What would you see if you cut through it horizontally (A: a circle) but what if you were to cut through it at an ‘angle’ (B)?

​

There are other 'options' that would produce different "sections" too; I suggest you Google “Conic Sections”.

Further to my earlier post (above).....