Conic Sections
The curves you get when you slice a cone are called conic sections and have many applications. Click on one for further details.
| One application is that a moving particle that is subjected to an inverse square law force like gravity or Coulomb's law will follow a path described by one of the conic sections. |
Each of the conic sections can be described in terms of a semimajor axis a and an eccentricity e. Representative values for these parameters are shown along with the types of orbits which are associated with them. |  |
Every equation of the form
| HyperPhysics*****HyperMath*****Geometry | R Nave |