Ellipse

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. It generalizes a circle, which
is the special type of ellipse in which the two focal points are the same.
The elongation of an ellipse is measured by its eccentricity , a number
ranging from (the limiting case of a circle) to (the
limiting case of infinite elongation, no longer an ellipse but a
parabola).

An ellipse has a simple algebraic solution for its area, but for its
perimeter (also known as circumference), integration is required to
obtain an exact solution. An ellipse (red) obtained as the
intersection of a cone with an
Analytically, the equation of a standard ellipse centered at the origin inclined plane.
with width and height is:

Assuming , the foci are for .

The standard parametric equation is:

Ellipses are the closed type of conic section: a plane curve

tracing the intersection of a cone with a plane (see figure).
Ellipses have many similarities with the other two forms
of conic sections, parabolas and hyperbolas, both of which
are open and unbounded. An angled cross section of a Ellipse: notations
right circular cylinder is also an ellipse.

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. This constant ratio is the above-mentioned eccentricity:

Ellipses are common in physics, astronomy and engineering. For example, the orbit of each planet in the Solar
System is approximately an ellipse with the Sun at one focus point (more precisely, the focus is the barycenter
of the Sun–planet pair). The same is true for moons orbiting planets and all other systems of two astronomical
bodies. The shapes of planets and stars are often well described by ellipsoids. A circle viewed from a side
angle looks like an ellipse: that is, the ellipse is the image of a circle under parallel or perspective projection.
The ellipse is also the simplest Lissajous figure formed when the horizontal and vertical motions are sinusoids
with the same frequency: a similar effect leads to elliptical polarization of light in optics.
The name, ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, "omission"), was given by Apollonius of
Perga in his Conics.

Definition as locus of points

An ellipse can be defined geometrically as a set or locus of points in
the Euclidean plane:

Given two fixed points called the foci and a distance

which is greater than the distance between the foci, the ellipse is
the set of points such that the sum of the distances
is equal to :

The midpoint of the line segment joining the foci is called the center
of the ellipse. The line through the foci is called the major axis, and the
line perpendicular to it through the center is the minor axis. The major
axis intersects the ellipse at two vertices , which have distance
to the center. The distance of the foci to the center is called the focal
distance or linear eccentricity. The quotient is the eccentricity.

The case yields a circle and is included as a special type of

ellipse. Ellipses: examples with increasing
eccentricity
The equation can be viewed in a different way
(see figure):

If is the circle with center and radius , then the distance of

a point to the circle equals the distance to the focus :

is called the circular directrix (related to focus ) of the

ellipse.[1][2] This property should not be confused with the definition of
an ellipse using a directrix line below.
Ellipse: definition by sum of
Using Dandelin spheres, one can prove that any section of a cone with distances to foci
a plane is an ellipse, assuming the plane does not contain the apex and
has slope less than that of the lines on the cone.

In Cartesian coordinates

Standard equation
The standard form of an ellipse in Cartesian coordinates assumes that the origin is the center of the ellipse, the
x-axis is the major axis, and:

the foci are the points ,

 the vertices are .
For an arbitrary point the distance to the focus is
and to the other focus . Hence the
point is on the ellipse whenever:

Removing the radicals by suitable squarings and using

(see diagram) produces the standard equation of the ellipse:[3]

Ellipse: definition by focus and

or, solved for y: circular directrix

The width and height parameters are called the semi-major and
semi-minor axes. The top and bottom points
are the co-vertices. The distances from a
point on the ellipse to the left and right foci are and
.

It follows from the equation that the ellipse is symmetric with respect
to the coordinate axes and hence with respect to the origin. Shape parameters:
a: semi-major axis,
b: semi-minor axis,
Parameters
c: linear eccentricity,
p: semi-latus rectum (usually
Principal axes ).
Throughout this article, the semi-major and semi-minor axes are
denoted and , respectively, i.e.

In principle, the canonical ellipse equation may have (and hence the ellipse would be
taller than it is wide). This form can be converted to the standard form by transposing the variable names
and and the parameter names and

Linear eccentricity
This is the distance from the center to a focus: .

Eccentricity
The eccentricity can be expressed as:
assuming An ellipse with equal axes ( ) has zero eccentricity, and
is a circle.

Semi-latus rectum
The length of the chord through one focus, perpendicular to the major axis, is
called the latus rectum. One half of it is the semi-latus rectum . A calculation
shows:[4]

Eccentricity e in terms of
semi-major a and semi-
minor b axes: e² + (b/a)² = 1
The semi-latus rectum is equal to the radius of curvature at the vertices (see
section curvature).

Tangent
An arbitrary line intersects an ellipse at 0, 1, or 2 points, respectively called an exterior line, tangent and
secant. Through any point of an ellipse there is a unique tangent. The tangent at a point of the ellipse
has the coordinate equation:

A vector parametric equation of the tangent is:

Proof: Let be a point on an ellipse and be the equation of any line

containing . Inserting the line's equation into the ellipse equation and respecting yields:

There are then cases:

1. Then line and the ellipse have only point in common, and is a

tangent. The tangent direction has perpendicular vector , so the tangent line has

equation for some . Because is on the tangent and the ellipse, one
obtains .
2. Then line has a second point in common with the ellipse, and is a secant.

Using (1) one finds that is a tangent vector at point , which proves the vector
equation.
If and are two points of the ellipse such that , then the points lie on two
conjugate diameters (see below). (If , the ellipse is a circle and "conjugate" means "orthogonal".)

Shifted ellipse
If the standard ellipse is shifted to have center , its equation is

The axes are still parallel to the x- and y-axes.

General ellipse
In analytic geometry, the ellipse is defined as a quadric: the
set of points of the Cartesian plane that, in non-
degenerate cases, satisfy the implicit equation[5][6]

provided

To distinguish the degenerate cases from the non-degenerate

case, let ∆ be the determinant

A general ellipse in the plane can be uniquely

described as a bivariate quadratic equation of
Cartesian coordinates, or using center, semi-
major and semi-minor axes, and angle

Then the ellipse is a non-degenerate real ellipse if and only if C∆ < 0. If C∆ > 0, we have an imaginary ellipse,
and if ∆ = 0, we have a point ellipse.[7]: 63

The general equation's coefficients can be obtained from known semi-major axis , semi-minor axis , center
coordinates , and rotation angle (the angle from the positive horizontal axis to the ellipse's major
axis) using the formulae:
These expressions can be derived from the canonical equation

by a Euclidean transformation of the coordinates :

Conversely, the canonical form parameters can be obtained from the general-form coefficients by the
equations:[3]

where atan2 is the 2-argument arctangent function.

Parametric representation

Standard parametric representation

Using trigonometric functions, a parametric representation of the
standard ellipse is:

The parameter t (called the eccentric anomaly in astronomy) is not the

angle of with the x-axis, but has a geometric meaning due
to Philippe de La Hire (see § Drawing ellipses below).[8]
The construction of points based on
the parametric equation and the
Rational representation interpretation of parameter t, which
is due to de la Hire
With the substitution and trigonometric formulae one
obtains
and the rational parametric equation of an ellipse

Ellipse points calculated by the

rational representation with equally
which covers any point of the ellipse except the left spaced parameters ( ).

vertex .

For this formula represents the right upper quarter of the ellipse moving counter-clockwise with
increasing The left vertex is the limit

Alternately, if the parameter is considered to be a point on the real projective line , then the
corresponding rational parametrization is

Then

Rational representations of conic sections are commonly used in computer-aided design (see Bezier curve).

Tangent slope as parameter

A parametric representation, which uses the slope of the tangent at a point of the ellipse can be obtained
from the derivative of the standard representation :

With help of trigonometric formulae one obtains:

Replacing and of the standard representation yields:

Here is the slope of the tangent at the corresponding ellipse point, is the upper and the lower half of
the ellipse. The vertices , having vertical tangents, are not covered by the representation.

The equation of the tangent at point has the form . The still unknown can be
determined by inserting the coordinates of the corresponding ellipse point :
This description of the tangents of an ellipse is an essential tool for the determination of the orthoptic of an
ellipse. The orthoptic article contains another proof, without differential calculus and trigonometric formulae.

General ellipse
Another definition of an ellipse uses affine
transformations:

Any ellipse is an affine image of the unit circle

with equation .

Parametric representation

An affine transformation of the Euclidean plane has the

form , where is a regular matrix (with Ellipse as an affine image of the unit circle
non-zero determinant) and is an arbitrary vector. If
are the column vectors of the matrix , the unit
circle , , is mapped onto the ellipse:

Here is the center and are the directions of two conjugate diameters, in general not perpendicular.

Vertices

The four vertices of the ellipse are , for a parameter defined by:

(If , then .) This is derived as follows. The tangent vector at point is:

At a vertex parameter , the tangent is perpendicular to the major/minor axes, so:

Expanding and applying the identities gives the equation

for

Area

From Apollonios theorem (see below) one obtains:

The area of an ellipse is

Semiaxes
With the abbreviations the statements of Apollonios's theorem can be
written as:

Solving this nonlinear system for yields the semiaxes:

Implicit representation

Solving the parametric representation for by Cramer's rule and using ,

one obtains the implicit representation

Conversely: If the equation

with

of an ellipse centered at the origin is given, then the two vectors

point to two conjugate points and the tools developed above are applicable.

Example: For the ellipse with equation the vectors are

Rotated standard ellipse

For one

obtains a parametric representation of the standard ellipse rotated

by angle :

Ellipse in space Whirls: nested, scaled and rotated ellipses.

The spiral is not drawn: we see it as the
locus of points where the ellipses are
especially close to each other.
The definition of an ellipse in this section gives a parametric representation of an arbitrary ellipse, even in
space, if one allows to be vectors in space.

Polar forms

Polar form relative to center

In polar coordinates, with the origin at the center of the ellipse and with
the angular coordinate measured from the major axis, the ellipse's
equation is[7]: 75

where is the eccentricity, not Euler's number.

Polar coordinates centered at the
center.
Polar form relative to focus
If instead we use polar coordinates with the origin at one focus, with
the angular coordinate still measured from the major axis, the
ellipse's equation is

where the sign in the denominator is negative if the reference direction

points towards the center (as illustrated on the right), and Polar coordinates centered at focus.
positive if that direction points away from the center.

The angle is called the true anomaly of the point. The numerator is the semi-latus rectum.

Eccentricity and the directrix property

Each of the two lines parallel to the minor axis, and at a
distance of from it, is called a directrix of
the ellipse (see diagram).

For an arbitrary point of the ellipse, the

quotient of the distance to one focus and to the
corresponding directrix (see diagram) is equal
to the eccentricity:

The proof for the pair follows from the fact that
Ellipse: directrix property
and

satisfy the equation

The second case is proven analogously.

The converse is also true and can be used to define an ellipse (in a manner similar to the definition of a
parabola):

For any point (focus), any line (directrix) not through , and any real number with
the ellipse is the locus of points for which the quotient of the distances to the point
and to the line is that is:

The extension to , which is the eccentricity of a circle, is not allowed in this context in the Euclidean
plane. However, one may consider the directrix of a circle to be the line at infinity in the projective plane.

(The choice yields a parabola, and if , a hyperbola.)

Proof

Let , and assume is a point on the curve.

The directrix has equation . With , the relation
produces the equations

and

The substitution yields

Pencil of conics with a common

This is the equation of an ellipse ( ), or a parabola ( ), or a vertex and common semi-latus
hyperbola ( ). All of these non-degenerate conics have, in rectum
common, the origin as a vertex (see diagram).

If , introduce new parameters so that , and then the equation above

becomes

which is the equation of an ellipse with center , the x-axis as major axis, and the major/minor semi axis
.

Construction of a directrix

Because of point of directrix (see diagram) and focus are inverse with respect to the
circle inversion at circle (in diagram green). Hence can be constructed as shown in the
diagram. Directrix is the perpendicular to the main axis at point .
General ellipse

If the focus is and the directrix , one

obtains the equation

(The right side of the equation uses the Hesse normal form of a line to
calculate the distance .)
Construction of a directrix

Focus-to-focus reflection property

An ellipse possesses the following property:

The normal at a point bisects the angle between the

lines .

Proof

Because the tangent line is perpendicular to the normal, an

equivalent statement is that the tangent is the external angle
bisector of the lines to the foci (see diagram). Let be the point
Ellipse: the tangent bisects the
on the line with distance to the focus , where is the supplementary angle of the angle
semi-major axis of the ellipse. Let line be the external angle between the lines to the foci.
bisector of the lines and Take any other point on
By the triangle inequality and the angle bisector theorem,
therefore
must be outside the ellipse. As this is true for every choice of
only intersects the ellipse at the single point so must be the
tangent line.

Application

The rays from one focus are reflected by the ellipse to the second
focus. This property has optical and acoustic applications similar
Rays from one focus reflect off the ellipse
to the reflective property of a parabola (see whispering gallery). to pass through the other focus.

Additionally, because of the focus-to-focus reflection property of

ellipses, if the rays are allowed to continue propagating, reflected rays will eventually align closely with the
major axis.

Conjugate diameters

Definition of conjugate diameters

A circle has the following property:

The midpoints of parallel chords lie on a diameter.

An affine transformation preserves
parallelism and midpoints of line
segments, so this property is true for any
ellipse. (Note that the parallel chords and
the diameter are no longer orthogonal.)

Definition
Orthogonal diameters of a circle with a square of tangents,
Two diameters of an ellipse are midpoints of parallel chords and an affine image, which is an
conjugate if the midpoints of chords ellipse with conjugate diameters, a parallelogram of tangents and
midpoints of chords.
parallel to lie on

From the diagram one finds:

Two diameters of an ellipse are conjugate whenever the tangents at and

are parallel to .

Conjugate diameters in an ellipse generalize orthogonal diameters in a circle.

In the parametric equation for a general ellipse given above,

any pair of points belong to a diameter, and the pair belong to its
conjugate diameter.

For the common parametric representation of the ellipse with equation one
gets: The points

(signs: (+,+) or (−,−) )

(signs: (−,+) or (+,−) )
are conjugate and

In case of a circle the last equation collapses to

Theorem of Apollonios on conjugate diameters

For an ellipse with semi-axes the following is true:[9][10]

Let and be halves of two conjugate diameters (see diagram) then

1. .
2. The triangle with sides (see diagram) has the constant area ,
which can be expressed by , too. is the altitude of point
and the angle between the half diameters. Hence the area of the ellipse (see section
metric properties) can be written as .
3. The parallelogram of tangents adjacent to the given conjugate diameters has the

Proof
Let the ellipse be in the canonical form with parametric equation

The two points are on conjugate

diameters (see previous section). From trigonometric formulae
one obtains and

The area of the triangle generated by is

and from the diagram it can be seen that the area of the Theorem of Apollonios
parallelogram is 8 times that of . Hence

Orthogonal tangents
For the ellipse the intersection points of
orthogonal tangents lie on the circle .
For the alternative area formula
This circle is called orthoptic or director circle of the ellipse (not
to be confused with the circular directrix defined above).

Drawing ellipses
Ellipses appear in descriptive geometry as images (parallel or central
projection) of circles. There exist various tools to draw an ellipse.
Computers provide the fastest and most accurate method for drawing
an ellipse. However, technical tools (ellipsographs) to draw an ellipse
without a computer exist. The principle was known to the 5th century
mathematician Proclus, and the tool now known as an elliptical Ellipse with its orthoptic
trammel was invented by Leonardo da Vinci.[11]

If there is no ellipsograph available, one can draw an ellipse using an

approximation by the four osculating circles at the vertices.

For any method described below, knowledge of the axes and the semi-
axes is necessary (or equivalently: the foci and the semi-major axis). If
this presumption is not fulfilled one has to know at least two conjugate
diameters. With help of Rytz's construction the axes and semi-axes can
be retrieved.

Central projection of circles (gate)

de La Hire's point construction
The following construction of single points of an ellipse is due to de La Hire.[12] It is based on the standard
parametric representation of an ellipse:

1. Draw the two circles centered at the center of the ellipse with radii and the axes of the
ellipse.
2. Draw a line through the center, which intersects the two circles at point and , respectively.
3. Draw a line through that is parallel to the minor axis and a line through that is parallel to the
major axis. These lines meet at an ellipse point (see diagram).
4. Repeat steps (2) and (3) with different lines through the center.

de La Hire's method Animation of the method

Pins-and-string method
The characterization of an ellipse as the locus of points so that
sum of the distances to the foci is constant leads to a method of
drawing one using two drawing pins, a length of string, and a
pencil. In this method, pins are pushed into the paper at two
points, which become the ellipse's foci. A string is tied at each end
to the two pins; its length after tying is . The tip of the pencil
then traces an ellipse if it is moved while keeping the string taut.
Using two pegs and a rope, gardeners use this procedure to outline
Ellipse: gardener's method
an elliptical flower bed—thus it is called the gardener's ellipse.
The Byzantine architect Anthemius of Tralles (c. 600) described
how this method could be used to construct an elliptical reflector,[13] and it was elaborated in a now-lost 9th-
century treatise by Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā.[14]

A similar method for drawing confocal ellipses with a closed string is due to the Irish bishop Charles Graves.

Paper strip methods

The two following methods rely on the parametric representation (see § Standard parametric representation,
above):

This representation can be modeled technically by two simple methods. In both cases center, the axes and
semi axes have to be known.
Method 1

The first method starts with

a strip of paper of length .

The point, where the semi axes meet is marked by . If the strip slides with both ends on the axes of the
desired ellipse, then point traces the ellipse. For the proof one shows that point has the parametric
representation , where parameter is the angle of the slope of the paper strip.

A technical realization of the motion of the paper strip can be achieved by a Tusi couple (see animation). The
device is able to draw any ellipse with a fixed sum , which is the radius of the large circle. This
restriction may be a disadvantage in real life. More flexible is the second paper strip method.

Ellipse construction: paper strip method 1 Ellipses with Tusi couple. Two examples:
red and cyan.

A variation of the paper strip method 1 uses the observation that the midpoint of the paper strip is moving
on the circle with center (of the ellipse) and radius . Hence, the paperstrip can be cut at point into
halves, connected again by a joint at and the sliding end fixed at the center (see diagram). After this
operation the movement of the unchanged half of the paperstrip is unchanged. [15] This variation requires only
one sliding shoe.
 Variation of the paper strip method 1 Animation of the variation of the paper strip
method 1

Method 2

The second method starts with

a strip of paper of length .

One marks the point, which divides the strip into two substrips of
length and . The strip is positioned onto the axes as
described in the diagram. Then the free end of the strip traces an
ellipse, while the strip is moved. For the proof, one recognizes that
the tracing point can be described parametrically by Ellipse construction: paper strip method 2
, where parameter is the angle of slope of the
paper strip.

This method is the base for several ellipsographs (see section below).

Similar to the variation of the paper strip method 1 a variation of the paper strip method 2 can be established
(see diagram) by cutting the part between the axes into halves.
 Elliptical trammel (principle) Ellipsograph due to Benjamin
Bramer

Variation of the paper strip

method 2

Most ellipsograph drafting instruments are based on the second paperstrip method.

Approximation by osculating circles

From Metric properties below, one obtains:

The radius of curvature at the vertices is:

The radius of curvature at the co-vertices is:

The diagram shows an easy way to find the centers of curvature

at vertex and co-
vertex , respectively:
Approximation of an ellipse with
1. mark the auxiliary point and draw the line osculating circles
segment
2. draw the line through , which is perpendicular to the
line
3. the intersection points of this line with the axes are the centers of the osculating circles.
(proof: simple calculation.)

The centers for the remaining vertices are found by symmetry.

With help of a French curve one draws a curve, which has smooth contact to the osculating circles.

Steiner generation
The following method to construct single points of an ellipse relies
on the Steiner generation of a conic section:

Given two pencils of lines at two points

(all lines containing and , respectively) and a
projective but not perspective mapping of onto
, then the intersection points of corresponding
lines form a non-degenerate projective conic section.

For the generation of points of the ellipse one uses

the pencils at the vertices . Let be an upper co-
Ellipse: Steiner generation
vertex of the ellipse and .

is the center of the rectangle . The side of the

rectangle is divided into n equal spaced line segments and this division is
projected parallel with the diagonal as direction onto the line
segment and assign the division as shown in the diagram. The
parallel projection together with the reverse of the orientation is part of the
projective mapping between the pencils at and needed. The
intersection points of any two related lines and are points of
the uniquely defined ellipse. With help of the points the points of
the second quarter of the ellipse can be determined. Analogously one
obtains the points of the lower half of the ellipse.
Ellipse: Steiner generation
Steiner generation can also be defined for hyperbolas and parabolas. It is
sometimes called a parallelogram method because one can use other
points rather than the vertices, which starts with a parallelogram instead of a rectangle.

As hypotrochoid
The ellipse is a special case of the hypotrochoid when , as shown in the adjacent image. The special
case of a moving circle with radius inside a circle with radius is called a Tusi couple.

Inscribed angles and three-point form

Circles
A circle with equation is uniquely determined by three points
not on a line. A simple way to determine the parameters uses the
inscribed angle theorem for circles:

For four points (see diagram) the following statement is true:

The four points are on a circle if and only if the angles at and are equal.
Usually one measures inscribed angles by a degree or
radian θ, but here the following measurement is more
convenient:

In order to measure the angle between two

lines with equations
one
uses the quotient:

Inscribed angle theorem for circles

For four points no three
of them on a line, we have the following (see diagram):

The four points are on a circle, if and only if the An ellipse (in red) as a special case of the
angles at and are equal. In terms of the hypotrochoid with R = 2r
angle measurement above, this means:

Circle: inscribed angle theorem

At first the measure is available only for chords not parallel to the y-axis, but the final formula works for any
chord.

Three-point form of circle equation

As a consequence, one obtains an equation for the circle determined by three non-collinear
points :

For example, for the three-point equation is:

 , which can be rearranged to

Using vectors, dot products and determinants this formula can be arranged more clearly, letting :

The center of the circle satisfies:

The radius is the distance between any of the three points and the center.

Ellipses

This section considers the family of ellipses defined by equations with a fixed
eccentricity . It is convenient to use the parameter:

and to write the ellipse equation as:

where q is fixed and vary over the real numbers. (Such ellipses have their axes parallel to the
coordinate axes: if , the major axis is parallel to the x-axis; if , it is parallel to the y-axis.)

Like a circle, such an ellipse is determined by three points not on a

line.

For this family of ellipses, one introduces the following q-analog angle
measure, which is not a function of the usual angle measure θ:[16][17]

In order to measure an angle between two lines with

equations one
uses the quotient:
Inscribed angle theorem for an
ellipse

Inscribed angle theorem for ellipses

Given four points , no three of them on a line (see diagram).

 The four points are on an ellipse with equation if and only if the
angles at and are equal in the sense of the measurement above—that is, if

At first the measure is available only for chords which are not parallel to the y-axis. But the final formula
works for any chord. The proof follows from a straightforward calculation. For the direction of proof given
that the points are on an ellipse, one can assume that the center of the ellipse is the origin.

Three-point form of ellipse equation

A consequence, one obtains an equation for the ellipse determined by three non-collinear
points :

For example, for and one obtains the three-point form

and after conversion

Analogously to the circle case, the equation can be written more clearly using vectors:

where is the modified dot product

Pole-polar relation
Any ellipse can be described in a suitable coordinate system by an
equation . The equation of the tangent at a point
of the ellipse is If one allows
point to be an arbitrary point different from the
origin, then

point is mapped onto the line

, not through the center of the ellipse. Ellipse: pole-polar relation

This relation between points and lines is a bijection.

The inverse function maps

line onto the point and

line onto the point

Such a relation between points and lines generated by a conic is called pole-polar relation or polarity. The
pole is the point; the polar the line.

By calculation one can confirm the following properties of the pole-polar relation of the ellipse:

For a point (pole) on the ellipse, the polar is the tangent at this point (see diagram: ).
For a pole outside the ellipse, the intersection points of its polar with the ellipse are the
tangency points of the two tangents passing (see diagram: ).
For a point within the ellipse, the polar has no point with the ellipse in common (see diagram:
).

1. The intersection point of two polars is the pole of the line through their poles.
2. The foci and , respectively, and the directrices and , respectively,
belong to pairs of pole and polar. Because they are even polar pairs with respect to the circle
, the directrices can be constructed by compass and straightedge (see Inversive
geometry).
Pole-polar relations exist for hyperbolas and parabolas as well.

Metric properties
All metric properties given below refer to an ellipse with equation

(1)

except for the section on the area enclosed by a tilted ellipse, where the generalized form of Eq.(1) will be
given.

Area
The area enclosed by an ellipse is:

(2)

where and are the lengths of the semi-major and semi-minor axes, respectively. The area formula is
intuitive: start with a circle of radius (so its area is ) and stretch it by a factor to make an ellipse.
This scales the area by the same factor: [18] However, using the same approach for the
circumference would be fallacious – compare the integrals and . It is also easy
to rigorously prove the area formula using integration as follows. Equation (1) can be rewritten as
For this curve is the top half of the ellipse. So twice the integral of
over the interval will be the area of the ellipse:
The second integral is the area of a circle of radius that is, So

An ellipse defined implicitly by has area

The area can also be expressed in terms of eccentricity and the length of the semi-major axis as
(obtained by solving for flattening, then computing the semi-minor axis).

So far we have dealt with erect ellipses, whose major and minor axes
are parallel to the and axes. However, some applications require
tilted ellipses. In charged-particle beam optics, for instance, the
enclosed area of an erect or tilted ellipse is an important property of the
beam, its emittance. In this case a simple formula still applies, namely

(3)

where , are intercepts and , are maximum values. It

follows directly from Apollonios's theorem.

The area enclosed by a tilted ellipse

Circumference is .

The circumference of an ellipse is:

where again is the length of the semi-major axis,

is the eccentricity, and the function is the complete elliptic integral
of the second kind,

Ellipses with same circumference

which is in general not an elementary function.

The circumference of the ellipse may be evaluated in terms of using Gauss's arithmetic-geometric
mean; [19] this is a quadratically converging iterative method (see here for details).

The exact infinite series is:

where is the double factorial (extended to negative odd integers in the usual way, giving and
).
This series converges, but by expanding in terms of James Ivory,[20] Bessel[21] and
Kummer[22] derived a series that converges much more rapidly. It is most concisely written in terms of the
binomial coefficient with :

The coefficients are slightly smaller (by a factor of ), but also is numerically much
smaller than except at and . For eccentricities less than 0.5 ( ), the error is
at the limits of double-precision floating-point after the term.[23]

Srinivasa Ramanujan gave two close approximations for the circumference in §16 of "Modular Equations and
Approximations to ";[24] they are

and

where takes on the same meaning as above. The errors in these approximations, which were obtained
empirically, are of order and respectively.[25][26] This is because the second formula's infinite series
expansion matches Ivory's formula up to the term.[25]: 3

Arc length
More generally, the arc length of a portion of the circumference, as a function of the angle subtended (or
x coordinates of any two points on the upper half of the ellipse), is given by an incomplete elliptic integral.
The upper half of an ellipse is parameterized by

Then the arc length from to is:

This is equivalent to

where is the incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind with parameter

Some lower and upper bounds on the circumference of the canonical ellipse with
are[27]

Here the upper bound is the circumference of a circumscribed concentric circle passing through the
endpoints of the ellipse's major axis, and the lower bound is the perimeter of an inscribed
rhombus with vertices at the endpoints of the major and the minor axes.

Given an ellipse whose axes are drawn, we can construct the endpoints of a particular elliptic arc whose length
is one eighth of the ellipse's circumference using only straightedge and compass in a finite number of steps;
for some specific shapes of ellipses, such as when the axes have a length ratio of ⁠ ⁠, it is additionally
possible to construct the endpoints of a particular arc whose length is one twelfth of the circumference.[28]
(The vertices and co-vertices are already endpoints of arcs whose length is one half or one quarter of the
ellipse's circumference.) However, the general theory of straightedge-and-compass elliptic division appears to
be unknown, unlike in the case of the circle and the lemniscate. The division in special cases has been
investigated by Legendre in his classical treatise.[29]

Curvature
The curvature is given by:

and the radius of curvature, ρ = 1/κ, at point :

The radius of curvature of an ellipse, as a function of angle θ from the center, is:

where e is the eccentricity.

Radius of curvature at the two vertices and the centers of curvature:

Radius of curvature at the two co-vertices and the centers of curvature:

The locus of all the centers of curvature is called an evolute. In the case of an ellipse, the evolute is an astroid.

In triangle geometry
Ellipses appear in triangle geometry as

1. Steiner ellipse: ellipse through the vertices of the triangle with center at the centroid,
2. inellipses: ellipses which touch the sides of a triangle. Special cases are the Steiner inellipse
and the Mandart inellipse.

As plane sections of quadrics

Ellipses appear as plane sections of the following quadrics:

Ellipsoid
Elliptic cone
Elliptic cylinder
Hyperboloid of one sheet
Hyperboloid of two sheets
 Ellipsoid Elliptic cone Elliptic cylinder Hyperboloid of one
sheet

Hyperboloid of two
sheets

Applications

Physics

Elliptical reflectors and acoustics

If the water's surface is disturbed at one focus of an elliptical water
tank, the circular waves of that disturbance, after reflecting off the
walls, converge simultaneously to a single point: the second focus. This
is a consequence of the total travel length being the same along any
wall-bouncing path between the two foci.

Similarly, if a light source is placed at one focus of an elliptic mirror,

all light rays on the plane of the ellipse are reflected to the second
focus. Since no other smooth curve has such a property, it can be used
as an alternative definition of an ellipse. (In the special case of a circle
with a source at its center all light would be reflected back to the Wave pattern of a little droplet
center.) If the ellipse is rotated along its major axis to produce an dropped into mercury in the foci of
ellipsoidal mirror (specifically, a prolate spheroid), this property holds the ellipse
for all rays out of the source. Alternatively, a cylindrical mirror with
elliptical cross-section can be used to focus light from a linear
fluorescent lamp along a line of the paper; such mirrors are used in some document scanners.

Sound waves are reflected in a similar way, so in a large elliptical room a person standing at one focus can
hear a person standing at the other focus remarkably well. The effect is even more evident under a vaulted
roof shaped as a section of a prolate spheroid. Such a room is called a whisper chamber. The same effect can
be demonstrated with two reflectors shaped like the end caps of such a spheroid, placed facing each other at
the proper distance. Examples are the National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol (where John Quincy
Adams is said to have used this property for eavesdropping on political matters); the Mormon Tabernacle at
Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah; at an exhibit on sound at the Museum of Science and Industry in
Chicago; in front of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Foellinger Auditorium; and also at a side
chamber of the Palace of Charles V, in the Alhambra.

Planetary orbits
In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler discovered that the orbits along which the planets travel around the Sun
are ellipses with the Sun [approximately] at one focus, in his first law of planetary motion. Later, Isaac
Newton explained this as a corollary of his law of universal gravitation.

More generally, in the gravitational two-body problem, if the two bodies are bound to each other (that is, the
total energy is negative), their orbits are similar ellipses with the common barycenter being one of the foci of
each ellipse. The other focus of either ellipse has no known physical significance. The orbit of either body in
the reference frame of the other is also an ellipse, with the other body at the same focus.

Keplerian elliptical orbits are the result of any radially directed attraction force whose strength is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance. Thus, in principle, the motion of two oppositely charged particles in
empty space would also be an ellipse. (However, this conclusion ignores losses due to electromagnetic
radiation and quantum effects, which become significant when the particles are moving at high speed.)

For elliptical orbits, useful relations involving the eccentricity are:

where

is the radius at apoapsis, i.e., the farthest distance of the orbit to the barycenter of the
system, which is a focus of the ellipse
is the radius at periapsis, the closest distance
is the length of the semi-major axis
Also, in terms of and , the semi-major axis is their arithmetic mean, the semi-minor axis is their
geometric mean, and the semi-latus rectum is their harmonic mean. In other words,

Harmonic oscillators
The general solution for a harmonic oscillator in two or more dimensions is also an ellipse. Such is the case,
for instance, of a long pendulum that is free to move in two dimensions; of a mass attached to a fixed point by
a perfectly elastic spring; or of any object that moves under influence of an attractive force that is directly
proportional to its distance from a fixed attractor. Unlike Keplerian orbits, however, these "harmonic orbits"
have the center of attraction at the geometric center of the ellipse, and have fairly simple equations of motion.

Phase visualization
In electronics, the relative phase of two sinusoidal signals can be compared by feeding them to the vertical and
horizontal inputs of an oscilloscope. If the Lissajous figure display is an ellipse, rather than a straight line, the
two signals are out of phase.

Elliptical gears
Two non-circular gears with the same elliptical outline, each pivoting around one focus and positioned at the
proper angle, turn smoothly while maintaining contact at all times. Alternatively, they can be connected by a
link chain or timing belt, or in the case of a bicycle the main chainring may be elliptical, or an ovoid similar to
an ellipse in form. Such elliptical gears may be used in mechanical equipment to produce variable angular
speed or torque from a constant rotation of the driving axle, or in the case of a bicycle to allow a varying crank
rotation speed with inversely varying mechanical advantage.

Elliptical bicycle gears make it easier for the chain to slide off the cog when changing gears.[30]

An example gear application would be a device that winds thread onto a conical bobbin on a spinning
machine. The bobbin would need to wind faster when the thread is near the apex than when it is near the
base.[31]

Optics

In a material that is optically anisotropic (birefringent), the refractive index depends on the
direction of the light. The dependency can be described by an index ellipsoid. (If the material is
optically isotropic, this ellipsoid is a sphere.)
In lamp-pumped solid-state lasers, elliptical cylinder-shaped reflectors have been used to direct
light from the pump lamp (coaxial with one ellipse focal axis) to the active medium rod (coaxial
with the second focal axis).[32]
In laser-plasma produced EUV light sources used in microchip lithography, EUV light is
generated by plasma positioned in the primary focus of an ellipsoid mirror and is collected in the
secondary focus at the input of the lithography machine.[33]

Statistics and finance

In statistics, a bivariate random vector is jointly elliptically distributed if its iso-density contours—loci
of equal values of the density function—are ellipses. The concept extends to an arbitrary number of elements
of the random vector, in which case in general the iso-density contours are ellipsoids. A special case is the
multivariate normal distribution. The elliptical distributions are important in finance because if rates of return
on assets are jointly elliptically distributed then all portfolios can be characterized completely by their mean
and variance—that is, any two portfolios with identical mean and variance of portfolio return have identical
distributions of portfolio return.[34][35]

Computer graphics
Drawing an ellipse as a graphics primitive is common in standard display libraries, such as the MacIntosh
QuickDraw API, and Direct2D on Windows. Jack Bresenham at IBM is most famous for the invention of 2D
drawing primitives, including line and circle drawing, using only fast integer operations such as addition and
branch on carry bit. M. L. V. Pitteway extended Bresenham's algorithm for lines to conics in 1967.[36] Another
efficient generalization to draw ellipses was invented in 1984 by Jerry Van Aken.[37]

In 1970 Danny Cohen presented at the "Computer Graphics 1970" conference in England a linear algorithm
for drawing ellipses and circles. In 1971, L. B. Smith published similar algorithms for all conic sections and
proved them to have good properties.[38] These algorithms need only a few multiplications and additions to
calculate each vector.

It is beneficial to use a parametric formulation in computer graphics because the density of points is greatest
where there is the most curvature. Thus, the change in slope between each successive point is small, reducing
the apparent "jaggedness" of the approximation.

Drawing with Bézier paths

Composite Bézier curves may also be used to draw an ellipse to sufficient accuracy, since any ellipse may be
construed as an affine transformation of a circle. The spline methods used to draw a circle may be used to
draw an ellipse, since the constituent Bézier curves behave appropriately under such transformations.

Optimization theory
It is sometimes useful to find the minimum bounding ellipse on a set of points. The ellipsoid method is quite
useful for solving this problem.

See also

Solar System portal

Science portal

Mathematics portal

Astronomy portal

Biography portal

Technology portal

Cartesian oval, a generalization of the ellipse

Circumconic and inconic
Distance of closest approach of ellipses
Ellipse fitting
Elliptic coordinates, an orthogonal coordinate system based on families of ellipses and
hyperbolae
Elliptic partial differential equation
Elliptical distribution, in statistics
Elliptical dome
Geodesics on an ellipsoid
Great ellipse
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
n-ellipse, a generalization of the ellipse for n foci
Oval
 Spheroid, the ellipsoid obtained by rotating an ellipse about its major or minor axis
Stadium (geometry), a two-dimensional geometric shape constructed of a rectangle with
semicircles at a pair of opposite sides
Steiner circumellipse, the unique ellipse circumscribing a triangle and sharing its centroid
Superellipse, a generalization of an ellipse that can look more rectangular or more "pointy"
True, eccentric, and mean anomaly

Notes
1. Apostol, Tom M.; Mnatsakanian, Mamikon A. (2012), New Horizons in Geometry, The Dolciani
Mathematical Expositions #47, The Mathematical Association of America, p. 251, ISBN 978-0-
88385-354-2
2. The German term for this circle is Leitkreis which can be translated as "Director circle", but that
term has a different meaning in the English literature (see Director circle).
3. "Ellipse - from Wolfram MathWorld" ([Link]
[Link]. 2020-09-10. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
4. Protter & Morrey (1970, pp. 304, APP-28)
5. Larson, Ron; Hostetler, Robert P.; Falvo, David C. (2006). "Chapter 10" ([Link]
m/books?id=yMdHnyerji8C&pg=PA767). Precalculus with Limits ([Link]
s?id=yMdHnyerji8C). Cengage Learning. p. 767. ISBN 978-0-618-66089-6.
6. Young, Cynthia Y. (2010). "Chapter 9" ([Link]
=PA831). Precalculus ([Link] John Wiley and
Sons. p. 831. ISBN 978-0-471-75684-2.
7. Lawrence, J. Dennis, A Catalog of Special Plane Curves, Dover Publ., 1972.
8. K. Strubecker: Vorlesungen über Darstellende Geometrie, GÖTTINGEN, VANDENHOECK &
RUPRECHT, 1967, p. 26
9. Bronstein&Semendjajew: Taschenbuch der Mathematik, Verlag Harri Deutsch, 1979,
ISBN 3871444928, p. 274.
10. Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, URL: [Link]
title=Apollonius_theorem&oldid=17516 .
11. Blake, E. M. (1900). "The Ellipsograph of Proclus". American Journal of Mathematics. 22 (2):
146–153. doi:10.2307/2369752 ([Link] JSTOR 2369752 (https://
[Link]/stable/2369752).
12. K. Strubecker: Vorlesungen über Darstellende Geometrie. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen
1967, S. 26.
13. From Περί παραδόξων μηχανημάτων [Concerning Wondrous Machines]: "If, then, we stretch a
string surrounding the points A, B tightly around the first point from which the rays are to be
reflected, the line will be drawn which is part of the so-called ellipse, with respect to which the
surface of the mirror must be situated."
Huxley, G. L. (1959). Anthemius of Tralles: A Study in Later Greek Geometry ([Link]
details/anthemiusoftrall0000huxl/page/8/). Cambridge, MA. pp. 8–9. LCCN 59-14700 ([Link]
[Link]/59-14700).
14. Al-Ḥasan's work was titled Kitāb al-shakl al-mudawwar al-mustaṭīl [The Book of the Elongated
Circular Figure].
Rashed, Roshdi (2014). Classical Mathematics from Al-Khwarizmi to Descartes. Translated by
Shank, Michael H. New York: Routledge. p. 559. ISBN 978-13176-2-239-0.
15. J. van Mannen: Seventeenth century instruments for drawing conic sections. In: The
Mathematical Gazette. Vol. 76, 1992, p. 222–230.
16. E. Hartmann: Lecture Note 'Planar Circle Geometries', an Introduction to Möbius-, Laguerre-
and Minkowski Planes, p. 55 ([Link]
df)
17. W. Benz, Vorlesungen über Geomerie der Algebren, Springer (1973)
18. Archimedes. (1897). The works of Archimedes ([Link] Heath,
Thomas Little, Sir, 1861-1940. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. p. 115. ISBN 0-486-42084-1.
OCLC 48876646 ([Link]
19. Carlson, B. C. (2010), "Elliptic Integrals" ([Link] in Olver, Frank W. J.;
Lozier, Daniel M.; Boisvert, Ronald F.; Clark, Charles W. (eds.), NIST Handbook of Mathematical
Functions, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-19225-5, MR 2723248 ([Link]
[Link]/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2723248).
20. Ivory, J. (1798). "A new series for the rectification of the ellipsis" ([Link]
s?id=FaUaqZZYYPAC&pg=PA177). Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 4 (2): 177–
190. doi:10.1017/s0080456800030817 ([Link]
S2CID 251572677 ([Link]
21. Bessel, F. W. (2010). "The calculation of longitude and latitude from geodesic measurements
(1825)". Astron. Nachr. 331 (8): 852–861. arXiv:0908.1824 ([Link]
Bibcode:2010AN....331..852K ([Link]
doi:10.1002/asna.201011352 ([Link] S2CID 118760590
([Link] English translation of Bessel, F. W.
(1825). "Über die Berechnung der geographischen Längen und Breiten aus geodätischen
Vermesssungen". Astron. Nachr. (in German). 4 (16): 241–254. arXiv:0908.1823 ([Link]
g/abs/0908.1823). Bibcode:1825AN......4..241B ([Link]
4..241B). doi:10.1002/asna.18260041601 ([Link]
S2CID 118630614 ([Link]
22. Linderholm, Carl E.; Segal, Arthur C. (June 1995). "An Overlooked Series for the Elliptic
Perimeter". Mathematics Magazine. 68 (3): 216–220. doi:10.1080/0025570X.1995.11996318 (ht
tps://[Link]/10.1080%2F0025570X.1995.11996318). which cites to Kummer, Ernst Eduard
(1836). "Uber die Hypergeometrische Reihe" ([Link]
e-und-angewandte-mathematik_1836_15) [About the hypergeometric series]. Journal für die
Reine und Angewandte Mathematik (in German). 15 (1, 2): 39–83, 127–172.
doi:10.1515/crll.1836.15.39 ([Link]
23. Cook, John D. (28 May 2023). "Comparing approximations for ellipse perimeter" ([Link]
[Link]/blog/2023/05/28/approximate-ellipse-perimeter/). John D. Cook Consulting blog.
Retrieved 2024-09-16.
24. Ramanujan, Srinivasa (1914). "Modular Equations and Approximations to π" ([Link]
[Link]/Volumes/published/[Link]#page=24) (PDF). Quart. J. Pure App. Math. 45: 350–
372. ISBN 978-0-8218-2076-6.
25. Villarino, Mark B. (20 June 2005). "Ramanujan's Perimeter of an Ellipse".
arXiv:[Link]/0506384 ([Link] "We present a detailed
analysis of Ramanujan's most accurate approximation to the perimeter of an ellipse." In
particular, the second equation underestimates the circumference by where

is an increasing function of

26. Cook, John D. (22 September 2024). "Error in Ramanujan's approximation for ellipse perimeter"
([Link] John D. Cook
Consulting blog. Retrieved 2024-12-01. "the relative error when b = 1 and a varies ... is bound
by 4/π − 14/11 = 0.00051227…."
27. Jameson, G.J.O. (2014). "Inequalities for the perimeter of an ellipse". Mathematical Gazette. 98
(542): 227–234. doi:10.1017/S002555720000125X ([Link]
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28. Prasolov, V.; Solovyev, Y. (1997). Elliptic Functions and Elliptic Integrals. American Mathematical
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29. Legendre's Traité des fonctions elliptiques et des intégrales eulériennes
30. David Drew. "Elliptical Gears". [1] ([Link]
Emat6890/Elliptical%[Link])
31. Grant, George B. (1906). A treatise on gear wheels ([Link]
AAAYAAJ&pg=PA72). Philadelphia Gear Works. p. 72.
32. Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology - lamp-pumped lasers, arc lamps, flash lamps,
high-power, Nd:YAG laser ([Link]
33. "Cymer - EUV Plasma Chamber Detail Category Home Page" ([Link]
0517100847/[Link] Archived from the original ([Link]
[Link]/plasma_chamber_detail/) on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
34. Chamberlain, G. (February 1983). "A characterization of the distributions that imply mean—
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0531(83)90129-1 ([Link]
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s://[Link]/10.1093%2Fcomjnl%2F10.3.282). The Computer Journal. 10 (3): 282–9.
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Besant, W.H. (1907). "Chapter III. The Ellipse" ([Link]
AAJ&pg=PA50). Conic Sections. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 50.
Coxeter, H.S.M. (1969). Introduction to Geometry ([Link]
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ISBN 978-0-486-63415-9
Miller, Charles D.; Lial, Margaret L.; Schneider, David I. (1990). Fundamentals of College
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Protter, Murray H.; Morrey, Charles B. Jr. (1970), College Calculus with Analytic Geometry
(2nd ed.), Reading: Addison-Wesley, LCCN 76087042 ([Link]

External links
Quotations related to Ellipse at Wikiquote
Media related to Ellipses at Wikimedia Commons
ellipse ([Link] at PlanetMath.
Weisstein, Eric W. "Ellipse" ([Link] MathWorld.
Weisstein, Eric W. "Ellipse as special case of hypotrochoid" ([Link]
[Link]). MathWorld.
Apollonius' Derivation of the Ellipse ([Link]
[Link]/convergence/1/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=196&bodyId=203) at
 Convergence
The Shape and History of The Ellipse in Washington, D.C. ([Link]
[Link]) by Clark Kimberling
Ellipse circumference calculator ([Link]
wUA==/)
Collection of animated ellipse demonstrations ([Link]
Ivanov, A.B. (2001) [1994], "Ellipse" ([Link]
e), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press
Trammel according Frans van Schooten ([Link]
el-van_Schooten-[Link]#Summary)
"Why is there no equation for the perimeter of an ellipse‽" ([Link]
nW3nJhBHL0) on YouTube by Matt Parker

Retrieved from "[Link]