Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
An Overview of Eccentricity
Description
A detailed tutorial on eccentricity. Step by step tutorial including sample problems and a visual representation of eccentricity for reference.
Overview
Eccentricity is a parameter associated with every conic section. Another way to think of it is as a measure of how much the conic section deviates from being circular. Each shape has a different eccentricity. The eccentricity of a circle is zero – because it does not deviate at all from being circular. The eccentricity of an ellipse that is not a circle is less than one but greater than zero, because it is almost a circle. The eccentricity of a parabola is one, and the eccentricity of a hyperbola is greater than one. Eccentricity plays an important part in calculations because two conic sections are only similar if they have the same eccentricity.
Tags: algebra, circle, circular, cones, conic section, eccentricity, ellipse, hyperbola, Math, measure, parabola, similar
Posted in Geometry | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Definition of a Hyperbola
Description
A detailed tutorial of the definition of a hyperbola. Step by steo tutorial including several examples of the definition of a hyperbola for reference.
Overview
A hyperbola is similar to a parabola, but there is one difference – the hyperbola has two branches. You can think of it in the 2D form as a concave up parabola on top of a concave down parabola. Many people refer to the hyperbola as the “bow” because that is what it resembles. Like the parabola, a hyperbola is caused by the intersection of a conical surface and a plane.
Tags: concave, conic, conical surface, curve, focus, Geometry, graph, hyperbola, intersect, Math, parabola, plane
Posted in Geometry | No Comments »
