Word Direct Answers

What does "eccentricity" mean?

Eccentricity: (Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Astron.) The ratio of the distance of the center of the orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the orbit.
  2. 3.(Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the throw.

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