Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2015 August 13

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August 13[edit]

3D figure[edit]

What 3D figure is to the sphere as the ellipse/oval is to the circle? GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 21:26, 13 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ellipsoid. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 21:34, 13 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(It depends a bit on how you define your terms. A sphere is the surface of revolution of a circle or half-circle about its axis; a spheroid is the surface of revolution of an ellipse or half-ellipse about its axis, so in that sense, spheroid is the answer. Of course, an spheroid is a type of ellipsoid) Smurrayinchester 19:31, 14 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]