Conic Sections/Parabola
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
[edit] Definition
The parabola is another commonly known conic section. The geometric definition of a parabola is the locus of all points such that they are equidistant from a point called the focus and a line called the directrix. The general equations for parabolas are y − k = 4p(x − h)2 for a vertical parabola, and x − h = 4a(y − k)2 for a horizontal parabola, where the vertex of the parabola is (h,k), and a is the directed distance from the vertex to the focus (focal length).
y=x^2
