Ellipse

Etymology

Greek elleipsis

• Date: circa 1753

Definitions

• 1 a : oval

b : a closed plane curve generated by a point moving in such a way that the sums of its distances from two fixed points is a constant : a plane section of a right circular cone that is a closed curve

Description

In geometry, an ellipse (from Greek ἔλλειψις elleipsis, a "falling short") is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is perpendicular to the axis. An ellipse is also the locus of all points of the plane whose distances to two fixed points add to the same constant.

Ellipses are closed curves and are the bounded case of the conic sections, the curves that result from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane that does not pass through its apex; the other two (open and unbounded) cases are parabolas and hyperbolas. Ellipses also arise as images of a circle under parallel projection and some cases of perspective projection. It is also the simplest Lissajous figure, formed when the horizontal and vertical motions are sinusoids with the same frequency.[1]