Drawing ellipses, hyperbolas or parabolas with a fixed number of points and maximum inscribed area

Abstract

In interactive graphic work one may want to represent curves by connecting a fixed number of points on the curves by straight lines. Parametric representation are given which lead to efficient algorithms for computing piecewise linear representations of ellipses, hyperbolas and parabolas. It is proved that the representations give inscribed polygons with maximum area in all three cases.