What do you get when you take a conic section in between a parabola and vertical?

105 Views Asked by At

The way conic sections are often described, if you take a section parallel to the double-cone, you get a parabola, and if you take a perfectly vertical section, you get a hyperbola. But what if you take a section that's in between parallel and vertical?

Given that high school math never mentioned this possibility (nor wikipedia, math sites, etc), I'm guessing it's not some sort of exotic new section. It would still cross the double-cone in 2 different places, so I'm guessing it's just a hyperbola? If so, is there a difference between a hyperbola from a vertical section and a diagonal one?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

A section with a vertical plane or with a plane between parallel and vertical gives anyway an hyperbola. In the first case the center of the hyperbola is at the same ''height'' of the vertex of the double cone, in the second case it go away with the inclination of the plane.