Parabola
Revision as of 12:59, 18 June 2006 by Mysmartmouth (talk | contribs)
A parabola is a type of conic section. A parabola is a locus of points that are equidistant from a point (the vertex) and a line (the directrix).
File:Http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Parabola.jpg
Parabola Equations
There are several "standard" ways to write the equation of a parabola. The first is polynomial form: y = ax^2+bx+c where a, b, and c are constants. The second is completed square form, or 
where a, k, and c are constants. The third way is the conic section form, or y^2=4px or 
where the p is a constant, and is the distance from the focus to the directrix.
