Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The eccentricity can be defined as the ratio of the linear eccentricity to the semimajor axis a: that is, = (lacking a center, the linear eccentricity for parabolas is not defined). It is worth to note that a parabola can be treated as an ellipse or a hyperbola, but with one focal point at infinity .
Since the eccentricity of a hyperbola is always greater than one, the center B must lie outside of the reciprocating circle C. This definition implies that the hyperbola is both the locus of the poles of the tangent lines to the circle B, as well as the envelope of the polar lines of the points on B.
the eccentricity can be written as a function of the coefficients of the quadratic equation. [18] If 4AC = B 2 the conic is a parabola and its eccentricity equals 1 (provided it is non-degenerate). Otherwise, assuming the equation represents either a non-degenerate hyperbola or ellipse, the eccentricity is given by
With eccentricity just over 1 the hyperbola is a sharp "v" shape. At = the asymptotes are at right angles. With > the asymptotes are more than 120° apart, and the periapsis distance is greater than the semi major axis. As eccentricity increases further the motion approaches a straight line.
For points on the hyperbola below the x-axis, the area is considered negative (see animated version with comparison with the trigonometric (circular) functions). The hyperbolic functions take a real argument called a hyperbolic angle. The magnitude of a hyperbolic angle is the area of its hyperbolic sector to xy = 1.
To simplify the calculation, let = without loss of generality (any other confocal net can be obtained by uniform scaling) and among the four intersections between an ellipse and a hyperbola choose those in the positive quadrant (other sign combinations yield the same result after an analogous calculation).
If 0 < e < 1 the conic is an ellipse, if e = 1 the conic is a parabola, and if e > 1 the conic is a hyperbola. If the distance to the focus is fixed and the directrix is a line at infinity, so the eccentricity is zero, then the conic is a circle.
The mean eccentricity of an object is the average eccentricity as a result of perturbations over a given time period. Neptune currently has an instant (current epoch ) eccentricity of 0.011 3 , [ 13 ] but from 1800 to 2050 has a mean eccentricity of 0.008 59 .