oval adj : rounded like an egg [syn: egg-shaped, elliptic, elliptical, ovate, oviform, ovoid, prolate] n : a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it; "the sums of the distances from the foci to any point on an ellipse is constant" [syn: ellipse]

see Oval

English

Pronunciation

• /əʊvəl/ a UK

  Rhymes: -əʊvəl

Noun

1. A shape rather like an egg or an ellipse.
2. A sporting arena etc. of this shape.

• Note: an ellipse is a precise mathematical shape, but an oval is not.

Translations

Adjective

1. Having the shape of an oval.

Translations

See also

• ovoid
• ovum

In geometry, an oval or ovoid (from Latin ovum, 'egg') is any curve resembling an egg or an ellipse. Unlike other curves, the term 'oval' is not well-defined and many distinct curves are commonly called ovals. These curves have in common that:

• they are differentiable (smooth-looking), simple (not self-intersecting), convex, closed, plane curves;
• their shape does not depart much from that of an ellipse, and
• there is at least one axis of symmetry.

The word ovoidal refers to the characteristic of being an ovoid.

Other examples of ovals described elsewhere include:

• Cassini ovals
• elliptic curves
• superellipse

Egg shape

The shape of an egg is approximately that of half each a prolate (long) and roughly spherical (potentially even minorly oblate/short) ellipsoid joined at the equator, sharing a principal axis of rotational symmetry, as illustrated above. Although the term egg-shaped usually implies a lack of reflection symmetry across the equatorial plane, it may also refer to true prolate ellipsoids. It can also be used to describe the 2-dimensional figure that, revolved around its major axis, produces the 3-dimensional surface.

Projective planes

In the theory of projective planes, oval is used to mean a set of q + 1 non-collinear points in PG(2,q), the projective plane over the finite field with q elements. See oval (projective plane).

See also

• Squoval

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