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Another way of thinking about an ellipse is to imagine a circle which is tilted along an axis through its center. The resulting curve is, again, an ellipse. The circle has been rotated and projected into the plane of the paper. See fig. 1 on page 4. As outlined below, this is exactly how the arrangement of generating points for an elliptical Mandala pattern is constructed: 1.  Cut a square piece of paper whose sides are equal to the length of your desired background. Locate the center point with diagonals as before and then draw two perpendicular lines dividing the sheet into four quadrants (refer to picture sequence below). 2.  Draw an ellipse of desired proportions (See Appendix B) centered on the center point as shown. Next draw a circle centered on the center point. The circle must touch the ellipse at exactly two points, as shown. 3.  Subdivide the circle in such a way that one of the vertices is on the quadrant line as indicated by arrow (a prime number). 4.  Draw parallel lines connecting the vertices as shown. The generating points for the ellipse are defined by the intersections of the parallel lines with the ellipse.                                                                          Starburst

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                           APPENDIX B
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