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ellipse

An ellipse is the set of all points in a plane, the sum of whose distances from two fixed points in the
plane is a constant. The two fixed points are called the foci (plural of ‘focus’) of the ellipse.

Note The constant which is the sum of the distances of a point on the ellipse from the two fixed
points is always greater than the distance between the two fixed points.

The midpoint of the line segment joining the foci is called the centre of the ellipse. The line segment
through the foci of the ellipse is called the major axis and the line segment through the centre and
perpendicular to the major axis is called the minor axis. The end points of the major axis are called
the vertices of the ellipse. We denote the length of the major axis by 2a, the length of the minor axis
by 2b and the distance between the foci by 2c. Thus, the length of the semi major axis is a and semi-
minor axis is b.

The major axis is the line passing through the foci. Vertices are the points on the ellipse which
intersect the major axis. The major axis length is the length of the line segment between the vertices.
The centre is the midpoint between the vertices (or the midpoint between the foci). The minor axis is
the line perpendicular to the minor axis passing through the centre. Minor axis endpoints are the
points on the ellipse which intersect the minor axis. The minor axis endpoints are also sometimes
called co-vertices. The minor axis length is the length of the line segment between minor axis
endpoints.

Note that which axis is major and which is minor will depend on the orientation of the ellipse. In the
ellipse shown at right, the foci lie on the y axis, so that is the major axis, and the x axis is the minor
axis. Because of this, the vertices are the endpoints of the ellipse on the y axis, and the minor axis
endpoints (co-vertices) are the endpoints on the x axis.
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EllipsEs cEntrEd at thE Origin

The standard form of an equation of an ellipse centered at the origin C(0,0) depends on whether the
major axis is horizontal or vertical. The table below gives the standard equation, vertices, minor axis
endpoints, foci, and graph for each.
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EllipsE nOt with cEntrE at thE Origin

Not all ellipses are centered at the origin. The graph of such an ellipse is a shift of the graph centered
at the origin, so the standard equation for one centered at (h, k) is slightly different. We can shift the
graph right h units and up k units by replacing x with x – h and y with y – k .