How are conic sections used in real life situation?
Think of everything round: circles are conic sections, so wheels, dinner plates, drinking glasses are often truncated cones. Ice cream cones. Screws are lines wrapped around cones. Drill bits. Circular saw blades. Parabolic reflectors in flashlights, headlights, telescope mirrors, satellite dishes, microwave antennas for telecommunications. Parabolas are the paths of things freely falling — baseballs, basketballs, footballs, cannon balls, bullets, Orbits of planets and satellites are ellipses. Elliptical gears are used in exercise machines. Orbital sanders. Hyperbolas are used for finding the range of distant events, like earthquakes. The shape of hanging wires and chains and bridge supports is based on hyperbolic trig functions. The list is almost endless.
