A PHP FUNCTION DESIGNED TO COMPUTE THE CIRCUMFERENCE OR PERIMETER OF AN ELLIPSE

The Function Numerically Evaluates the Complete Elliptic Integral of the Second
Kind Using an Infinite Power Series Summation Based on Legendre Polynomials.

PHP Program Function by Jay Tanner - 2025








The PHP Code

The demonstration program below demonstrates using the function to compute the equatorial and polar meridian circumferences of the Earth according to the WGS-84 Earth ellipsoid model used by the GPS system.  The parameters for any other ellipsoid model could also be used instead.

The function is an implementation of (Eq. 6), above.

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Below is the PHP code for only the ellipse circumference function, without all the comments.

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It might be noted that in this final reduced fractions series, the fractional denominators all equate to
even powers of 2, so the summation series could also be expressed in the somewhat abbreviated
form shown below: