"The race course was a large three-mile ring of the form of an ellipse...".
In Russian text not three-mile, but 4 versta (верста). Versta = 500 Sagen (сажень), Sagen = 7 feets.
The problem.
The workers marked this racetrack like that. They took a rope and tied it with both ends to two pegs driven into the ground and spaced one versta (see above) from each other. Then they pulled this rope and drew an ellipse. How long was this rope? What is the canonic formula of this ellipse?
Who will give the best solution?
