# Plotting a line segment from the degenerate case of an ellipse [duplicate]

An ellipse degenerates into a line segment when the defining constant distance from the two foci is the actual distance between the two foci. The ellipse closes into a line segment.

The following code shows a family of concentric ellipses that should converge to a line segment when the constant is set to 5. However it doesn't plot the line segment even if I increase the MaxRecursion very high.

ContourPlot[Evaluate[Table[Sqrt[(x + 3)^2 + y^2] + Sqrt[x^2 + (y - 4)^2] == n, {n, 5,
6, .01}]], {x, -4, 1}, {y, -1, 5}]


Is there someway to get Mathematica to actually plot the line segment of the degenerate case of an ellipse?

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## marked as duplicate by Kuba, The Toad♦Feb 6 '14 at 21:00

Epilog -> Line[{{-3, 0}, {0, 4}}] :) –  Kuba Feb 6 '14 at 17:30
@Kuba That does work to draw a line segment. Thanks! So I guess Mathematica just can't recognize the degenerate case of the ellipse and I'll have to use that method in place instead? –  David Caliri Feb 6 '14 at 18:12
It's for the same reason as the problem in this question. –  Rahul Feb 6 '14 at 18:35

ContourPlot[Evaluate[Table[

It looks even more line-like if you decrease n to 5.00002 and increase PlotPoints to 600, though this dramatically increases the time required to draw the plot.