Major and minor axes

The major axis of an object is the line segment that connects two farthest points in the object. See Diameter.

The minor axis is the line segment that is perpendicular to the major axis with the length minimal satisfying this property: the lines parallel to the major axis and passing through the minor axis cover the whole object.

An alternative way to evaluate this characteristic is thickness and length. In either case, the issues of robustness of geometry is to be considered.