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Foci of an Ellipse

Two fixed points on the interior of an ellipse used in the formal definition of the curve. An ellipse is defined as follows: For two given points, the foci, an ellipse is the locus of points such that the sum of the distance to each focus is constant.

Note: If the interior of an ellipse is a mirror, all rays of light emitting from one focus reflect off the inside and pass through the other focus.

 

 

 

See also

Directrices of an ellipse, foci of a hyperbola, focus of a parabola, focal radius

 


  this page updated 15-jul-23
Mathwords: Terms and Formulas from Algebra I to Calculus
written, illustrated, and webmastered by Bruce Simmons
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