Is Constant Acceleration Possible in Elliptical Motion?

[SprucerMoose]

G'day all,
I was doing some maths homework and found the acceleration of a particle moving in an ellipse to be constant. Is this correct?

I would have thought that a constant acceleration would give a circle.

 

[cjl]

That would only be correct in certain special cases (and the particle speed would not be constant). Your intuition was somewhat correct - a constant (magnitude) of acceleration perpendicular to the velocity vector of an object will lead to a circle, but a circular path isn't the only possibility with constant acceleration.

 

[SprucerMoose]

Thanks