Geodetic Engineer Board Practice Exam 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

In the context of an ellipse, the distance from the center to a focus is determined by the ellipse's eccentricity and its semi-major axis. The first eccentricity (often denoted as 'e') represents how much an ellipse deviates from being circular. It's calculated using the formula \( e = \sqrt{1 - (b^2/a^2)} \), where 'a' is the semi-major axis length and 'b' is the semi-minor axis length.

The distance from the center of the ellipse to one of its foci is expressed as \( c = ae \), where 'c' is the linear eccentricity, 'a' is the semi-major axis, and 'e' is the first eccentricity. This relationship reflects the spatial configuration of an ellipse, establishing that the closer the foci are to the center, the less "stretched" the ellipse appears.

Thus, the distance from the origin (the center of the ellipse) to one of the foci is indeed given by the first eccentricity multiplied by the length of the semi-major axis, confirming that this option accurately describes the geometric relationship in an ellipse. Understanding these parameters is crucial in geodesy and related fields, where ellipses frequently