Secant line Secant line In geometry, a secant of a curve is a line that intersects the curve in at least two (distinct) points. The word "secant" comes from the Latin word "secare", meaning "to cut". In the case of a circle, a secant will intersect the circle in exactly two points and a chord is the line segment determined by these two points, that is the interval on a secant whose endpoints are these points. A straight line can intersect a circle in two, one or zero points. A line intersecting in two points is called a "secant line", in one
Director circle ellipse. The Apollonius circle, the locus of points "X" such that the ratio of distances of "X" to two foci "P" and "P" is a fixed constant "r", is another special case, with "w" = 1, "w" = −"r", and "C" = 0. In the case of a parabola the director circle degenerates to a straight line, the directrix of the parabola. Director circle In geometry, the director circle of an ellipse or hyperbola (also called the orthoptic circle or Fermat–Apollonius circle) is a circle consisting of all points where two perpendicular tangent lines to the ellipse or hyperbola cross