Eccentricity, trouble w/ the proof
I'm trying to understand the proof for eccentricity; I can get about halfway through it. The problem I'm having is summarized below
If e<1, you get the equation of an ellipse of the form
^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1)
where
Eq. 4:
^2})
The foci of an ellipse are at a distance c from the center, where
Eq 5:
^2})
This shows that
It follows from equations 4 and 5 that the eccentricity is given by
If someone could help explain how is derived, or really what it means I'd be so grateful. I'm using Calculus Early Transcendentals 6th Ed. by Stewart (Ch. 10, Sect. 6).
Re: Eccentricity, trouble w/ the proof
The conclusion is that the eccentricity of an ellips is: , now:
If you write: 
Calculating with this:
Substitution of 
and 
out of eq 4 and you get:
![1-\frac{b^2}{a^2}=1-\left[\frac{\frac{-e^2d^2}{1-e^2}}{\frac{-e^2d^2}{(1-e^2)^2}}}\right]](http://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?1-\frac{b^2}{a^2}=1-\left[\frac{\frac{-e^2d^2}{1-e^2}}{\frac{-e^2d^2}{(1-e^2)^2}}}\right])
=e^2)
Now take the square root of 
.
