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An ellipse (red) obtained as the intersection of a cone with an inclined plane. Ellipse: notations Ellipses: examples with increasing eccentricity. In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant.
Given the coordinates of the two points (Φ 1, L 1) and (Φ 2, L 2), the inverse problem finds the azimuths α 1, α 2 and the ellipsoidal distance s. Calculate U 1, U 2 and L, and set initial value of λ = L. Then iteratively evaluate the following equations until λ converges:
Geodetic latitude and geocentric latitude have different definitions. Geodetic latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and the surface normal at a point on the ellipsoid, whereas geocentric latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and a radial line connecting the centre of the ellipsoid to a point on the surface (see figure).
An ellipsograph is a mechanism that generates the shape of an ellipse. One common form of ellipsograph is known as the trammel of Archimedes . [ 1 ] It consists of two shuttles which are confined to perpendicular channels or rails and a rod which is attached to the shuttles by pivots at adjustable positions along the rod.
Finding the geodesic between two points on the Earth, the so-called inverse geodetic problem, was the focus of many mathematicians and geodesists over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries with major contributions by Clairaut, [5] Legendre, [6] Bessel, [7] and Helmert English translation of Astron. Nachr. 4, 241–254 (1825).
An alternative parametrization exists that closely follows the angular parametrization of spherical coordinates: [1] = , = , = . Here, > parametrizes the concentric ellipsoids around the origin and [,] and [,] are the usual polar and azimuthal angles of spherical coordinates, respectively.
The reverse scaling (see above) transforms the unit sphere back to the ellipsoid and the vectors e 0, e 1, e 2 are mapped onto vectors f 0, f 1, f 2, which were wanted for the parametric representation of the intersection ellipse. How to find the vertices and semi-axes of the ellipse is described in ellipse.
From this equation one gets the following properties of the evolute: At points with ′ = the evolute is not regular. That means: at points with maximal or minimal curvature (vertices of the given curve) the evolute has cusps. (See the diagrams of the evolutes of the parabola, the ellipse, the cycloid and the nephroid.)