Like acircle can be drawn using a compass, how can I draw an ellipse on paper? I am familiar with general mathematical terms and trigonometry, if the method can be explained using them.
2007-07-05 05:42:22 · 5 answers · asked by Autumn Dew 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
try using a stencil : ]
2007-07-05 05:46:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Put two nails or tacks in a sheet of paper at the foci of the ellipse. Then tie a string in a loop, and loosely drape it over _both_ of the nails. You will have to adjust the length of the loop to the size of ellipse you want.
Then use the point of a pencil, place it in the loop of string and pull it out taut. Keep the string taut and you will make a perfect ellipse around the two nails.
Incidentally, this is exactly how an ellipse is defined--a figure with two foci, where every point on the ellipse has the same combined distance to both foci. Specifically:
r1 + r2 = C
where r1 and r2 are the distances to foci 1 and foci 2. This is as opposed to
r = C
for a circle.
2007-07-05 05:46:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The above is correct. The major axis is 40 and the minor is 28; half of these is 20 and 14. The distance from the center to the foci (which are on either side of the center, on the 40 inch segment) is square root of (20^2 - 14^2) = √(400-196) Do that out on a calculator and measure it on either side of the center. That's where the nails would go. The string would be 40 inches long, one end tied to each nail, which will droop down since it's longer than the distance between the nails. Put a pencil in the loop and draw the ellipse as you slide the pencil along in the loop. Do the bottom half then flip the pencil to the other side of the string and do the top half.
2016-03-14 23:10:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Usually you have to fake it, with the longer axis being used to form 2 ends from 2 equidistant points from the center of the axis, and the same for the shorter axis (the point may actually lay outside the ellipse depending on the eccenticity).
2007-07-05 05:47:53 · answer #4 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tie a string to two tacks. The two tacks are stuck at the foci of the ellipse, and a pencil is used to stretch the string and draw. (The sum of the distances from the two foci is a constant, in this case the length of the string between the tacks.)
2007-07-05 05:45:44 · answer #5 · answered by McFate 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
whats an ellipse?
2007-07-05 05:45:16 · answer #6 · answered by xojessox 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋