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Figure 1 Geometry of an ellipse. In our example here, the ellipse is longer in the horizontal direction: this length is called the major axis and the up-and-down width is called the minor axis. Two distinct fixed points can be identified on the major axis, called foci and marked F and F', the sum of whose distances from each point on the ellipse is constant. The distance across the ellipse at the focal point is called the latus rectum. The semi-major axis is labeled a, the semi-minor axis b, the half-focal distance c, and the semi-latus rectum p.
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