The latus rectum of a conic section is the chord through a focus parallel to the conic section directrix (Coxeter 1969). "Latus rectum" is a compound of the Latin latus, meaning "side," and rectum, meaning "straight."
Half the latus rectum is called the semilatus rectum.
See also
Conic Section, Conic Section Directrix, Parabola, Semilatus Rectum, Universal Parabolic Constant
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References
Coxeter, H. S. M. Introduction to Geometry, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, pp. 116-118, 1969.
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Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Latus Rectum." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/LatusRectum.html