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The paper introduces a family of reflector contours which are particularly suited to controlling the distribution of light from large light sources of circular cross section. Since the contours are generalizations of parabolas and ellipses, in which one focal point has become a circle of finite radius, they have been called macrofocal conics. The differential equation of the family of curves is derived and solved; some applications of macrofocal conics to reflector design are also discussed.
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Spencer et al. (1965) studied this question.
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