Parabolas
by gun khayanying
1. what is a parabola ?
1.1. The parabola is defined as the locus of a point which moves so that it is always the same distance from a fixed point (called the focus) and a given line (called the directrix). The word locus means the set of points satisfying a given condition. See some background in Distance from a Point to a Line.
2. what does parabola look like ?
2.1. Quadratic Equation
2.1.1. In this section we want to look at the graph of a quadratic function. The most general form of a quadratic function is,f(x) or y = ax^2 x bx x c
2.2. configuration
2.3. Feature
2.3.1. All parabolas are vaguely “U” shaped and they will have a highest or lowest point that is called the vertex. Parabolas may open up or down and may or may not have x-intercepts and they will always have a single y-intercept.