Parabola

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).

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.