A line segment through a focus of an ellipse with endpoints on the ellipse and perpendicular to the major axis is called a latus rectum of the ellipse. An ellipse has two latera recta. Knowing the length of the latera recta is helpful in sketching an ellipse because it yields other points on the curve (see figure). Show that the length of each latus rectum is 2b2/a.

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Latera recta F2