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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.
A circle is an ellipse with two coinciding foci. The limit of hyperbolas as the foci are brought together is degenerate: a pair of intersecting lines. If an orthogonal net of ellipses and hyperbolas is transformed by bringing the two foci together, the result is thus an orthogonal net of concentric circles and lines passing through the circle ...
The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the ellipse, though it was sometimes called as a fourth type. The ancient Greek mathematicians studied conic sections, culminating around 200 BC with Apollonius of Perga's systematic work on their properties.
The linear eccentricity of an ellipse or hyperbola, denoted c (or sometimes f or e), is the distance between its center and either of its two foci. The eccentricity can be defined as the ratio of the linear eccentricity to the semimajor axis a : that is, e = c a {\displaystyle e={\frac {c}{a}}} (lacking a center, the linear eccentricity for ...
Chord: a line segment whose endpoints lie on the circle, thus dividing a circle into two segments. Circumference: the length of one circuit along the circle, or the distance around the circle. Diameter: a line segment whose endpoints lie on the circle and that passes through the centre; or the length of such a line segment. This is the largest ...
The perpendicular line passing through the chord's midpoint is called sagitta (Latin for "arrow"). More generally, a chord is a line segment joining two points on any curve, for instance, on an ellipse. A chord that passes through a circle's center point is the circle's diameter.
Using these concepts, "two diameters are conjugate when each is the polar of the figurative point of the other." [5] Only one of the conjugate diameters of a hyperbola cuts the curve. The notion of point-pair separation distinguishes an ellipse from a hyperbola: In the ellipse every pair of conjugate diameters separates every other pair. In a ...
The semi-minor axis of an ellipse runs from the center of the ellipse (a point halfway between and on the line running between the foci) to the edge of the ellipse. The semi-minor axis is half of the minor axis. The minor axis is the longest line segment perpendicular to the major axis that connects two points on the ellipse's edge.