Question

Is Ellipse a Conic Section?

Answer 1

Hint: An Ellipse may be defined as the plane curve surrounding the two focal points in such a way that for all the points on the curve the sum of the two distances to the focal points remains the constant. A conic section can be defined as the intersection of a plane and the double right circular cone and by changing the angle and the location of the intersection we can form the different types of conics such as circles, ellipses, hyperbolas and the parabolas.

Complete answer:
Here we will draw the diagram for the ellipse and the conic section.

An ellipse is obtained as the intersection of the cone with an inclined plane as shown above and the cross-section gives the image as the ellipse with the two foci and one centre.

Hence, an ellipse is considered as the type of the conic section which is the plane curve tracing the intersection of a cone with the plane.
So, the correct answer is “an ellipse is considered as the type of the conic section”.

Note: Don’t be confused between the figures such as parabola, hyperbola and the ellipse know the difference and remember it perfectly. Go through the shape and the standard equations for each of the figures. Also, note that the angle cross section of the cylinder is also an ellipse.
Ellipses are used in physics, Engineering and in astronomy. The orbit of each of the planets in our solar system is approximately in the shape of an ellipse with the Sun at one focus point.