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The Parabola
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4. The Parabola
Why study the parabola?
The parabola has many applications in situations where:
Radiation often needs to be concentrated at one point (e.g. radio telescopes, pay TV dishes, solar radiation collectors); o
Radiation needs to be transmitted from a single point into a wide parallel beam (e.g. headlight reflectors).
Here is an animation showing how parallel radio waves are collected by a parabolic antenna. The parallel rays reflect off the
antenna and meet at a point (the red dot, labelled F), called the focus.
Click the "See more" button to see more examples. Each time you run it, the dish will become flatter.
Observe that the focus point, F, moves further away from the dish each time you run it.
See more
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Definition of a Parabola
The parabola is defined as the locus of a point which moves so that it is always the same distance from a fixed point (called th
focus) and a given line (called the directrix).
[The word locus means the set of points satisfying a given condition. See some background in Distance from a Point to a Line.]
y
(x, y)
d
focus:
(0, p)
d p x
p
directrix:
y = −p
Parabola, showing focus (0, p), and directrix y = − p.
y
(x, y)
d
focus:
y (0, p)
d p x
p p
directrix:
y = −p
Note that d = y + p.
Now, using the Distance Formula on the general points (0, p) and (x, y ), and equating it to our value d = y + p, we have
2 2
(x − 0) + (y − p) = y + p
(x − 0) 2 + (y − p) 2 = (y + p) 2
Simplifying gives us the formula for a parabola:
x 2 = 4py
In more familiar form, with "y = " on the left, we can write this as:
x2
y=
4p
Now let's see what "the locus of points equidistant from a point to a line" means.
Each of the colour-coded line segments is the same length in this spider-like graph:
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y
Don't miss Interactive Parabola Graphs, where you can explore concepts like focus, directrix and vertex.
x2
y=
2
Find the focal length and indicate the focus and the directrix on your graph.
Answer
x2
y=
4p
and our particular example:
x2
y=
2
So we have:
x2 x2
=
4p 2
So the focus will be at (0, 0.5) and the directrix is the line y = −0.5.
y
1.5
1
focus:
0.5 (0, 0.5)
x
-2 -1 1 2
-0.5
directrix: y = −0.5
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Parabola y = 0.5x 2.
Note: Even though the sides look as though they become straight as x increases, in fact they do not. The sides of a parabola
just get steeper and steeper (but are never vertical, either).
The Gladesville Bridge in Sydney, Australia was the longest single span concrete arched bridge in the world when it was
constructed in 1964.
The shape of the arch is almost parabolic, as you can see in this image with a superimposed graph of y = −x 2 (The negative
means the legs of the parabola face downwards.)
[Actually, such bridges are normally in the shape of a catenary, but that is beyond the scope of this chapter. See Is the Gatewa
Arch a Parabola?]
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(x, y)
x
focus: (p, 0)
directrix:
x = −p
y 2 = 4px
[In a relation, there are two or more values of y for each value of x. On the other hand, a function only has one value of y for
each value of x.]
Sketch the curve and find the equation of the parabola with focus (−2,0) and directrix x = 2.
Answer
y
6
5
4
3
focus: 2
(−2, 0) 1 x
-2 -1 1 2
-1
-2
-3
-4 directrix:
-5 x=2
-6
Parabola y 2 = −8
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After sketching, we can see that the equation required is in the following form, since we have a horizontal axis:
y 2 = 4px
Since p = −2 (from the question), we can directly write the equation of the parabola:
y 2 = −8x
To shift the vertex of a parabola from (0, 0) to (h, k), each x in the equation becomes (x − h) and each y becomes (y − k).
So if the axis of a parabola is vertical, and the vertex is at (h, k), we have
(x − h) 2 = 4p(y − k)
(h, k)
x
Parabola (x − h) 2 = 4p(y − k)
In the above case, the axis of symmetry is the vertical line through the point (h, k), that is x = h.
If the axis of a parabola is horizontal, and the vertex is at (h, k), the equation becomes
(y − k) 2 = 4p(x − h)
(h, k)
x
Parabola (y − k) 2 = 4p(x − h)
In the above case, the axis of symmetry is the horizontal line through the point (h, k), that is y = k.
Exercises top
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2
1. Sketch x = 14y
Answer
x2 = 14y
Focus:
4p = 14
so
14
p= = 3.5
4
So the focus is at (0, 3.5)
Directrix: y = −3.5
y
10
5 focus:
(0, 3.5)
x
-10 -5 5 10
directrix: y = −3.5
-5
Parabola y = x 2/14.
2. Find the equation of the parabola having vertex (0, 0), axis along the x-axis and passing through (2, −1).
Answer
The curve must have the following orientation, since we know it has horizontal axis and passes through (2, −1):
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(0, 0) x
(2, −1)
So we need to use the general formula for a parabola with horizontal axis:
y 2 = 4px
We need to find p. We know the curve goes through (2, −1), so we substitute:
2
(−1) = 4(p)(2)
→ 1 = 8p
1
→p= .
8
x
So the required equation is y 2 = .
2
3. We found above that the equation of the parabola with vertex (h, k) and axis parallel to the y-axis is
(x − h)2 = 4p(y − k ).
Answer
We will have vertex at (−1, 2) and p = −3 (so the parabola will be "upside down").
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y
(−1, 2)
x
-10 -5 5 10
focus:
(−1, −1)
-5
Using
(x − h)2 = 4p(y − k )
We have:
2
(x + 1) = 4(−3)(y − 2)
x2 + 2x + 1 = −12y + 24
12y = −x2 − 2x − 1 + 24
−x2 − 2x + 23
y=
12
Also, don't miss Interactive Parabola Graphs, where you can explore parabolas by moving them around and changing
parameters.
Applications of Parabolas
Application 1 - Antennas
A parabolic antenna has a cross-section of width 12 m and depth of 2 m. Where should the receiver be placed for best
reception?
Answer
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12 m
2m
The receiver should be placed at the focus of the parabolic dish for best reception, because the incoming signal will be
concentrated at the focus.
y
5
4 focus?
3
(−6, 2) (6, 2)
2
1
x
-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 6
-1
We place the vertex of the parabola at the origin (for convenience) and use the equation of the parabola to get the focal
distance (p) and hence the required point.
x2 = 4py.
We can see that the parabola passes through the point (6, 2).
Substituting, we have:
2
(6) = 4p(2)
36
So p = = 4.5
8
So we need to place the receiver 4.5 metres from the vertex, along the axis of symmetry of the parabola.
x2 = 18y
That is
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2
x
y=
18
y
5
focus (0, 4.5)
4
3
(−6, 2) (6, 2)
2
1
x
-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 6
-1
Application 2 - Projectiles
A golf ball is dropped and a regular strobe light illustrates its motion as follows...
What is the equation of the parabola that the golf ball is tracing out?
Answer
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First we get a set of data points from observing the height of the ball at various times from the graph (I've used the bottom of
each circle as the data point):
t 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Using Scientific Notebook, we can model the motion from the data points.
Using one of the Statistics tools in Scientific Notebook (Fit Curve to Data), we obtain:
y
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1 x
-2-1 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
We can use this to find where the ball will be at any time during the motion. For example, when t = 2.5, the golf ball will have
height 5.6 m. Also, we can predict when it will next bounce (at around time 18.5), by solving for y = 0.
You can also use Microsoft Excel to module a parabola. After you plot the points, right-click on one of the points and choose
"Add Trendline".
Choose Polynomial, degree 2. In "Options" you can get Excel to display the equation of the parabola on the chart.
All of the graphs in this chapter are examples of conic sections. This means we can obtain each shape by slicing a cone at
different angles.
We start with a double cone (2 right circular cones placed apex to apex):
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If we slice a cone parallel to the slant edge of the cone, the resulting shape is a parabola, as shown.
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