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Central Rectangle of a Hyperbola

The central rectangle is a geometric guide used to determine the exact asymptotes of a hyperbola. For a hyperbola centered at (0,0)(0, 0) with a horizontal transverse axis, the sides of the rectangle intersect the axes at the vertices (±a,0)(\pm a, 0) and at (0,±b)(0, \pm b). If the transverse axis is vertical, the sides intersect at the vertices (0,±a)(0, \pm a) and at (±b,0)(\pm b, 0). The extended diagonals of this central rectangle form the hyperbola's asymptotes.

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Updated 2026-05-25

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