Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The eccentricity is also the ratio of the semimajor axis a to the distance d from the center to the directrix: e = a d . {\displaystyle e={\frac {a}{d}}.} The eccentricity can be expressed in terms of the flattening f (defined as f = 1 − b / a {\displaystyle f=1-b/a} for semimajor axis a and semiminor axis b ):
The ellipse thus generated has its second focus at the center of the directrix circle, and the ellipse lies entirely within the circle. For the parabola, the center of the directrix moves to the point at infinity (see Projective geometry). The directrix "circle" becomes a curve with zero curvature, indistinguishable from a straight line.
(1) All rulings are parallel to a plane, the directrix plane. (2) All rulings intersect a fixed line, the axis. The conoid is a right conoid if its axis is perpendicular to its directrix plane. Hence all rulings are perpendicular to the axis. Because of (1) any conoid is a Catalan surface and can be represented parametrically by
The minor axis is the shortest diameter of an ellipse, and its half-length is the semi-minor axis (b), the same value b as in the standard equation below. By analogy, for a hyperbola the parameter b in the standard equation is also called the semi-minor axis. The following relations hold: [6] = =
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 ...
The line perpendicular to the directrix and passing through the focus (that is, the line that splits the parabola through the middle) is called the "axis of symmetry". The point where the parabola intersects its axis of symmetry is called the "vertex" and is the point where the parabola is most sharply curved. The distance between the vertex ...
In geometry, a surface S in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is ruled (also called a scroll) if through every point of S, there is a straight line that lies on S. Examples include the plane , the lateral surface of a cylinder or cone , a conical surface with elliptical directrix , the right conoid , the helicoid , and the tangent developable of a ...
The directrix is often taken as a plane curve, in a plane not containing the apex, but this is not a requirement. [1] In general, a conical surface consists of two congruent unbounded halves joined by the apex. Each half is called a nappe, and is the union of all the rays that start at the apex and pass through a point of some fixed space curve ...