The ratio of the distance between the foci and the length of the <em>major</em> axis is called eccentricity.
<h3>Definitions of dimensions in ellipses</h3>
Dimensionally speaking, an ellipse is characterized by three variables:
- Length of the <em>major</em> semiaxis (
).
- Length of the <em>minor</em> semiaxis (
).
- Distance between the foci and the center of the ellipse (
).
And there is the following relationship:
(1)
Another variable that measure how "similar" is an ellipse to a circle is the eccentricity (), which is defined by the following formula:
,
(2)
The greater the eccentricity, the more similar the ellipse to a circle.
Therefore, the ratio of the distance between the foci and the length of the <em>major</em> axis is called eccentricity.
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