Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/02/06/20:43:19
On Thu, 06 Feb 1997 10:07:45 -0600 Mark Teel <mteel AT dtechs DOT com> writes:
>Our friend Mr. Chambers stated (and I paraphrase):
>"an ellipse can be defined as the sum of the distances from any point
>on
>the ellipse to the two foci is equal to 1". Is this correct?
No, this is not correct - and I don't _think_ it's what I stated (maybe I
did, if so it was an error):
An ellipse can be defined as the sum of the distances from any point on
the ellipse to the two foci is equal to a constant.
This constant is, of course, different on different ellipses - but my old
math teacher somehow worked the equations out to always equal 1 (I think
she used scalars or something, but there's no real point).
If I have confused anyone, I apologize.
Now, can we please let this drop? I've got enough mail already (junk
mail on e-mail? Unfortunately, yes... :(
...Chambers
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