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The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the longest semidiameter or one half of the major axis, and thus runs from the centre, through a focus, and to the perimeter. The semi-minor axis (minor semiaxis) of an ellipse or hyperbola is a line segment that is at right angles with the semi-major axis and has one end at the center of the conic section.
In geometry and linear algebra, a principal axis is a certain line in a Euclidean space associated with a ellipsoid or hyperboloid, generalizing the major and minor axes of an ellipse or hyperbola. The principal axis theorem states that the principal axes are perpendicular , and gives a constructive procedure for finding them.
At first the measure is available only for chords which are not parallel to the y-axis. But the final formula works for any chord. The proof follows from a straightforward calculation. For the direction of proof given that the points are on an ellipse, one can assume that the center of the ellipse is the origin.
By the principal axis theorem, the two eigenvectors of the matrix of the quadratic form of a central conic section (ellipse or hyperbola) are perpendicular (orthogonal to each other) and each is parallel to (in the same direction as) either the major or minor axis of the conic.
Similarly, the shortest diameter of an ellipse is called the minor axis, and the segment from its midpoint (the ellipse's center) to either of its endpoints is called a semi-minor axis. The chords of an ellipse which are perpendicular to the major axis and pass through one of its foci are called the latera recta of the ellipse.
If a cylinder is used in this sense, the above paragraph would read as follows: A plane section of a right circular cylinder of finite length [6] is a circle if the cutting plane is perpendicular to the cylinder's axis of symmetry, or an ellipse if it is neither parallel nor perpendicular to that axis. If the cutting plane is parallel to the ...
In more recent years, computer programs have been used to find and calculate more precise approximations of the perimeter of an ellipse. In an online video about the perimeter of an ellipse, recreational mathematician and YouTuber Matt Parker, using a computer program, calculated numerous approximations for the perimeter of an ellipse. [4]
One parameterization of the elliptical figure specifies the orientation angle ψ, defined as the angle between the major axis of the ellipse and the x-axis [13] along with the ellipticity ε = a/b, the ratio of the ellipse's major to minor axis. [14] [15] [16] (also known as the axial ratio).