Conics Art Project
You will be creating your own piece of artwork incorporating the four conic sections. Your artwork
must be of a “picture” rather than simply a “design,” and it must be school appropriate! Your picture
will include circles, ellipses, hyperbolas, parabolas, and lines. This is to be done individually and is
worth 100 points.
1. Technical version of picture (20 points)
 Your drawing must be done neatly on graph paper and it must include the following:
o Axes and origin must be visible and clearly labeled.
o Graphs of a minimum of 8 total conic sections (two of each- one horizontal and one
vertical)
o Graphs of a minimum of 4 lines (1 with a positive slope, 1 with a negative slope, 1 with an
undefined slope, 1 with zero slope)
o All key graphing components (vertices, co-vertices, centers, asymptotes)
o Each conic section/line must be numbered and color coordinated.
Section 1 Due
 Periods 1-3-5: April 12, 2012
 Periods 2-4-6: April 13, 2012
2. Equations of conics used, with domain specified for each (50 points)
 All equations must be in standard form on an “equation page,” neat, labeled, and organized.
 For each conic section/line you must include the following parts of the graph:
o Circle: radius, center, equation (10 pts)
o Ellipse: center, vertices, co-vertices, foci, and equation (10 pts)
o Hyperbola: center, vertices, foci, slopes of asymptotes and equation (10 pts)
o Parabola: vertex, focus, a point on the parabola, the value of “a” (with work shown),
and equation (10 pts)
o Line: slope, y-intercept, equation (with work shown) (10 pts)
Section 2 Due
 Periods 1-3-5: April 19, 2012
 Periods 2-4-6: April 20, 2012
3. Artist rendering of picture (20 points)
 Use tracing paper over technical version and trace picture.
 Do not trace labels axes or origin.
 Decorated picture by coloring and adding in artistic touches.
4. Conclusions (10 points)
 Conclusions must be typed and in essay form.
 Answer the following questions in your conclusions.
o What did I learn from doing this project?
o How can I relate it to real life?
o What difficulties did I face and how did I solve them?
o How did I come up with the idea of the picture?
Section 3 and 4 are Due:
 Periods 1-3-5: May 3, 2012
 Periods 2-4-6: May 4, 2012