plane curve formed by the intersection of a plane and a circular cone The angle at which the plane cuts the cone determines whether the curve is a circle, ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola
Any two-dimensional curve that is formed by the intersection of a plane with a right circular cone The most common conic sections are ellipses, circles, parabolas, and hyperbolas Compare nonuniform rational B-spline (NURB)
Any two-dimensional curve traced by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane. If the plane is perpendicular to the cone's axis, the resulting curve is a circle. Intersections at other angles result in ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. The conic sections are studied in Euclidean geometry to analyze their physical properties and in analytic geometry to derive their equations. In either context, they have useful applications to optics, antenna design, structural engineering, and architecture