RE: [FT] Solar Thrust: Strategic spaceflight

On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, Tim Jones wrote:

> Whats a Semi-latus rectum - sounds kinky :-)

Heh heh.  It's rectum as in "rectilinear", I think.  It's basically half
the width of the elliptical orbit - it's perpendicular to the semi-major
axis.  Twice the semi-major axis is the length, twice the semi-latus
rectum is the width.  With those two numbers you (or Adobe Illustrator,
for example) can draw the ellipse.