To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: ellipses at an angle
Message-ID: <19970206.174121.7695.1.chambersb@juno.com>
References: <32FA01D0 DOT 50EA AT dtechs DOT com>
From: chambersb AT juno DOT com (Benjamin D Chambers)
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 1997 20:40:02 EST


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