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In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactly the same curves. One description of a parabola involves a point (the focus) and a line (the directrix). The focus does not lie on the ...
Table of Shapes Section Sub-Section Sup-Section Name Algebraic Curves ¿ Curves ¿ Curves: Cubic Plane Curve: Quartic Plane Curve: Rational Curves: Degree 2: Conic Section(s) Unit Circle: Unit Hyperbola: Degree 3: Folium of Descartes: Cissoid of Diocles: Conchoid of de Sluze: Right Strophoid: Semicubical Parabola: Serpentine Curve: Trident ...
Parabolic usually refers to something in a shape of a parabola, but may also refer to a parable. Parabolic may refer to: In mathematics: In elementary mathematics, especially elementary geometry: Parabolic coordinates; Parabolic cylindrical coordinates; parabolic Möbius transformation; Parabolic geometry (disambiguation) Parabolic spiral ...
In this position, the hyperbolic paraboloid opens downward along the x-axis and upward along the y-axis (that is, the parabola in the plane x = 0 opens upward and the parabola in the plane y = 0 opens downward). Any paraboloid (elliptic or hyperbolic) is a translation surface, as it can be generated by a moving parabola directed by a second ...
The graph of any quadratic function has the same general shape, which is called a parabola. The location and size of the parabola, and how it opens, depend on the values of a, b, and c. If a > 0, the parabola has a minimum point and opens upward. If a < 0, the parabola has a maximum point and opens
It is also possible to describe all conic sections in terms of a single focus and a single directrix, which is a given line not containing the focus. A conic is defined as the locus of points for each of which the distance to the focus divided by the distance to the directrix is a fixed positive constant, called the eccentricity e.
While a parabolic arch may resemble a catenary arch, a parabola is a quadratic function while a catenary is the hyperbolic cosine, cosh(x), a sum of two exponential functions. One parabola is f(x) = x 2 + 3x − 1, and hyperbolic cosine is cosh(x) = e x + e −x / 2 . The curves are unrelated.
A parabola, one of the simplest curves, after (straight) lines. In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point.