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An ellipse may also be defined in terms of one focal point and a line outside the ellipse called the directrix: for all points on the ellipse, the ratio between the distance to the focus and the distance to the directrix is a constant.
A family of conic sections of varying eccentricity share a focus point and directrix line, including an ellipse (red, e = 1/2), a parabola (green, e = 1), and a hyperbola (blue, e = 2). The conic of eccentricity 0 in this figure is an infinitesimal circle centered at the focus, and the conic of eccentricity ∞ is an infinitesimally separated ...
Define b by the equations c 2 = a 2 − b 2 for an ellipse and c 2 = a 2 + b 2 for a hyperbola. For a circle, c = 0 so a 2 = b 2, with radius r = a = b. For the parabola, the standard form has the focus on the x-axis at the point (a, 0) and the directrix the line with equation x = −a. In standard form the parabola will always pass through the ...
Hence, if the tangents meet at (x 0, y 0) orthogonally, the following equations hold: = = The last equation is equivalent to =, which is the equation of the directrix. Orthoptic of an ellipse and hyperbola
In an ellipse, the semi-major axis is the geometric mean of the distance from the center to either focus and the distance from the center to either directrix. 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 ...
More generally, for any collection of points P i, weights w i, and constant C, one can define a circle as the locus of points X such that (,) =.. The director circle of an ellipse is a special case of this more general construction with two points P 1 and P 2 at the foci of the ellipse, weights w 1 = w 2 = 1, and C equal to the square of the major axis of the ellipse.
More generally, when the directrix is an ellipse, or any conic section, and the apex is an arbitrary point not on the plane of , one obtains an elliptic cone [4] (also called a conical quadric or quadratic cone), [5] which is a special case of a quadric surface. [4] [5]
*The distance from a point, P, on the ellipse to a focus is always proportional to the distance to a vertical line, D, called the directrix. The constant of proportionality is the eccentricity, e. *The eccentricity is always between 0 and 1. At zero, the ellispe becomes a circle, at 1 the ellipse becomes a parabola. Greater than one, it is a ...