Conic Section

	AllPages RecentChanges Links to this page Edit this page Search Entry portal
Advice For New Users

A conic section is the curve obtained by the intersection of a plane and a cone (a conic surface).

These are:

circle - cutting perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the cone
ellipse - cutting at an angle less than the slope angle.
parabola - cutting at an angle equal to the slope angle
hyperbola - cutting at an angle greater than the slope angle

Image courtesy of the wiki commons.

There are some degenerate cases i.e. when the cutting plane passes through the apex of the cone:

point - a degenerate circle (or ellipse)
line - a degenerate parabola
intersecting lines - a degenerate hyperbola

Links to this page / Page history / Last change to this page
Recent changes / Edit this page (with sufficient authority)
All pages / Search / Change password / Logout