An ellipse is the locus of a point such that the sum of its distance from two fixed points is the same. The shape is like a stretched circle but its circumference does not become a straight line.
An oval is an imprecise term for all kinds of "stretched" circles. The word is derived from ova = egg so an oval could have the shape of the cross section of an egg; it could be an ellipse or it could be like a running track, which consists of two semi-circles with parallel straight sections.
Chat with our AI personalities