Examples from the Real World

Satellite and Planet Orbits Kepler's first law of planetary motion is: The path of each planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.

Whispering Galleries -- in the old House of representatives Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capital building is elliptic. It was in this room that John Quincy Adams, while a member of the House of Representatives, discovered this acoustical phenomenon. He situated his desk at a focal point of the elliptical ceiling, easily eavesdropping on the private conversations of other House members located near the other focal point.

Whispering Galleries -- Mormon tabernacle The Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City has an elliptical ceiling. You can hear a pin drop from 175 feet away. The Tabernacle is 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 80 feet high. The organ has 11,623 pipes!

Elliptical Pool Table The reflection property of the ellipse is useful in elliptical pool -- if you hit the ball so that it goes through one focus, it will reflect off the ellipse and go into the hole which is located at the other focus.

The Ellipse in D.C. The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC is aptly named.