Tuesday, May 13, 2008

PARABOLAS


get it?...

Today Max went over parabolas. It's quite straight forward.. in the equation, if the "x" is squared it opens up or down.. up with a positive "a" value..
And down with a negative "a" value, just as the two shown below..
If, in the equation, the "y" is squared then the parabola opens to the left or to the right.. positive "a" value means it opens right.. negative "a" value opens left.
  • The second half of the slide is showing the equation you use to figure out the vertex and axis of symmetry.
  • Also it's not on the slide so I'm not sure if it's important but just for review.. when your graphing a parabola, if the "a" value is less than 1 it will be wider than a standard parabola(which has "a" = 1), and if the "a" value is greater than 1 the parabola will be narrower.
And remember, things will be lots easier in life if your mouth resembles this equation y=1/2*x^2.....like this guy's..

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