n-ellipse

In geometry, the multifocal ellipse (also known as n-ellipse, k-ellipse, polyellipse, egglipse, generalized ellipse, and (in German) Tschirnhaus'sche Eikurve) is a generalization of the ellipse allowing more than two foci.

Specifically, given n points (ui, vi) in a plane (foci), an n-ellipse is the locus of all points of the plane whose sum of distances to the n foci is a constant d. The set of points of an n-ellipse is defined as:

\left\{(x, y) \in R^2: \sum_{i=1}^n \sqrt{(x-u_i)^2 + (y-v_i)^2} = d\right\}.

The 1-ellipse corresponds to the circle. The 2-ellipse corresponds to the classic ellipse. Both are algebraic curves of degree 2.

For any number of foci, the curves are convex and closed.[1]:p. 90 If n is odd, the algebraic degree of the curve is 2^k, while if n is even the degree is 2^k - \binom{k}{k/2}. [2]:Thm. 1.1 In the n=3 case, the curve is smooth unless it goes through a focus.[2]:Fig. 3

See also

References

  1. Paul Erdős; István Vincze (1982). "On the Approximation of Convex, Closed Plane Curves by Multifocal Ellipses" (PDF). Journal of Applied Probability 19: 89–96. JSTOR 3213552. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 J. Nie, P.A. Parrilo, B. Sturmfels: "Semidefinite representation of the k-ellipse".
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