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The point where the parabola intersects its axis of symmetry is called the "vertex" and is the point where the parabola is most sharply curved. The distance between the vertex and the focus, measured along the axis of symmetry, is the "focal length".
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry. Every plane section of a paraboloid made by a plane parallel to the axis of symmetry is
Parabolas have only one focus, so, by convention, confocal parabolas have the same focus and the same axis of symmetry. Consequently, any point not on the axis of symmetry lies on two confocal parabolas which intersect orthogonally (see below). A circle is an ellipse with both foci coinciding at the center.
If a parabola is positioned in Cartesian coordinates with its vertex at the origin and its axis of symmetry along the y-axis, so the parabola opens upward, its equation is =, where is its focal length. (See "Parabola#In a cartesian coordinate system".)
Vertex and axis of symmetry in blue; Focus and directrix in pink; Visualisation of the complex roots of y = ax 2 + bx + c: the parabola is rotated 180° about its vertex (orange). Its x-intercepts are rotated 90° around their mid-point, and the Cartesian plane is interpreted as the complex plane (green). [3
A parabola, a convex curve that is the graph of the convex function () = In geometry, a convex curve is ... An oval with a horizontal axis of symmetry.
Parabolic coordinates are a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system in which the coordinate lines are confocal parabolas. A three-dimensional version of parabolic coordinates is obtained by rotating the two-dimensional system about the symmetry axis of the parabolas.
The first four of these forms are symmetric about both the x-axis and y-axis (for the circle, ellipse and hyperbola), or about the x-axis only (for the parabola). The rectangular hyperbola, however, is instead symmetric about the lines y = x and y = −x. These standard forms can be written parametrically as, Circle: