Ellipse

This article is about the geometric figure. For other uses, see Ellipse (disambiguation).
"Elliptical" redirects here. For the exercise machine, see Elliptical trainer.
An ellipse obtained as the intersection of a cone with an inclined plane.
The rings of Saturn are circular, but when seen partially edge on, as in this image, they appear to be noncircular
ellipses. In addition, the planet itself is an ellipsoid, flatter at the poles than the equator. Picture by ESO
In mathematics, an ellipse is a cure on a plane surrounding two focal points such that a straight
line drawn from one of the focal points to any point on the cure and then bac! to the other focal
point has the same length for eery point on the cure. As such, it is a generali"ation of a circle,
which is a special type of an ellipse that has both focal points at the same location. The shape of
an ellipse #how $elongated$ it is% is represented by its eccentricity, which for an ellipse can be any
number from & #the limiting case of a circle% to arbitrarily close to but less than '.
Ellipses are the closed type of conic section( a plane cure that results from the intersection of
a cone by a plane. #See figure to the right.% Ellipses hae many similarities with the other two
forms of conic sections( the parabolas and the hyperbolas, both of which
are open andunbounded. The cross section of a cylinder is an ellipse if it is sufficiently far from
parallel to the a)is of the cylinder.
Analytically, an ellipse can also be defined as the set of points such that the ratio of the distance
of each point on the cure from a gien point #called a focus or focal point% to the distance from
that same point on the cure to a gien line #called the directri)% is a constant, called the
eccentricity of the ellipse.
Ellipses are common in physics, astronomy and engineering. *or e)ample, the orbits of the
planets are ellipses with the Sun at one of the focal points. The same is true for moons orbiting
planets and all other systems haing two astronomical bodies. The shape of planets and stars
are often well described by ellipsoids. Ellipses also arise as images of a circle under parallel
pro+ection and the bounded cases ofperspectie pro+ection, which are simply intersections of the
pro+ectie cone with the plane of pro+ection. It is also the simplest ,issa+ous figure, formed when
the hori"ontal and ertical motions are sinusoids with the same frequency. A similar effect leads
to elliptical polari"ation of light in optics.
The name, --./0/1 #2lleipsis, 3omission3%, was gien by Apollonius of Perga in his Conics,
emphasi"ing the connection of the cure with 3application of areas3.