I (Brian Tung) wrote:
Ernie, I'm going to try an explanation, and you tell me how far off I
get. It's not going to be a rigorous explanation, but I'll try to make
it specific to the ellipse. Warning: This may use no complicated math,
but it is *long*.

OK, it was long, and not very well written, but I think it basically has
a seed of truth to it. At some point, I'm going to try to polish it a
bit and see if it can be made understandable.

--
Brian Tung
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