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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 ...
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 conic is defined as the locus of points for each of which the distance to the focus divided by the distance to the directrix is a fixed positive constant, called the eccentricity e. 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.
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 ...
For any point in the plane, the sum + of its distances to the foci equals , whereas their difference equals . Thus, the distance to F 1 {\displaystyle F_{1}} is a ( σ + τ ) {\displaystyle a(\sigma +\tau )} , whereas the distance to F 2 {\displaystyle F_{2}} is a ( σ − τ ) {\displaystyle a(\sigma -\tau )} .
Considering the pencils of confocal ellipses and hyperbolas (see lead diagram) one gets from the geometrical properties of the normal and tangent at a point (the normal of an ellipse and the tangent of a hyperbola bisect the angle between the lines to the foci). Any ellipse of the pencil intersects any hyperbola orthogonally (see diagram).
Determining the distance of closest approach of the ellipses; that is the distance between the centers of the ellipses when they are in point contact externally. Rotating the plane until the distance of closest approach of the ellipses is a maximum. The distance of closest approach of the ellipsoids is this maximum distance.
Parabola: the set of points equidistant from a fixed point (the focus) and a line (the directrix). Hyperbola: the set of points for each of which the absolute value of the difference between the distances to two given foci is a constant. Ellipse: the set of points for each of which the sum of the distances to two given foci is a constant