Eccentricity

Eccentricity is a measure of how much an ellipse deviates from a circle. To calculate the eccentricity of any ellipse, measure the semi-major axis and call it " a " . Measure the semi-minor axis and call that measurement " b ". Now calculate:

                          SquareRoot( (a^2 - b^2)/a^2  )

The eccentricity is given the symbol, " e " .

The eccentricity of any ellipse is greater than zero, but smaller than 1.0

The eccentricity of a circle is zero.