Parabola

When you kick a soccer ball (or shoot an arrow, fire a missile or throw
a stone) it arcs up into the air and comes down again ...

... following the path of a parabola!

(Except for how the air affects it.)

Try kicking the ball:

a b c

-0.29 0

y = − 0.29x2 + 6

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directrix

Definition
focus
A parabola is a curve where any point is at an equal distance
la

from:
abo

a fixed point (the focus ), and

Par

Equal a fixed straight line (the directrix )

distances !

On Paper
Get a piece of paper, draw a straight line on it, then make a big dot for the focus (not
on the line!).

Now play around with some measurements until you have another dot that is exactly
the same distance from the focus and the straight line.

Keep going until you have lots of little dots, then join the little dots and you will have
a parabola!

Just like in this interactive (try moving point P):

circle line factor ellipse parabola

Same distance to focus point as perp distance to line

Clear Reset
© 2022 Rod Pierce v0.63

Vertex
Names
Here are the important names: axis of symmetry
focus
directrix

the directrix and focus (explained above)

the axis of symmetry (goes through the focus, at right angles Par
to the directrix) abo
la
the vertex (where the parabola makes its sharpest turn) is
halfway between the focus and directrix.

Reflector
And a parabola has this amazing property:

Any ray parallel to the axis of symmetry gets reflected off the surface straight to
the focus.
 focus

And that explains why that dot is called the focus ...

... because that's where all the rays get focused!

So the parabola can be used for:

satellite dishes,
radar dishes,

concentrating the sun's rays to make a hot spot,

the reflector on spotlights and torches,

etc

We also get a parabola when we slice through a cone (the slice must be parallel to
the side of the cone).

So the parabola is a conic section (a section of a cone).

Equations
 

y=x2 The simplest equation for a parabola is y = x2

y
 

Turned on its side it becomes y2 = x

x (or y = √x for just the top half)

 y
y 2=x

A little more generally:

Y
M Q
y2 = 4ax
P(x,y)

where a is the distance from the origin to the focus (and also
from the origin to directrix) N O F=(a,0)
focus axis of symmetry
"a" X

directrix
Par
abo
la

Example: Find the focus for the equation y2=5x

Converting y2 = 5x to y2 = 4ax form, we get y2 = 4 (5/4) x,

so a = 5/4, and the focus of y2=5x is:

F = (a, 0) = (5/4, 0)

The equations of parabolas in different orientations are as follows:

Y Y Y
Y

F=(a,0) F=(-a,0) F=(0,a)

X X X
X F=(0,-a)

y2 = 4ax y2 = −4ax x2 = 4ay x2 = −4ay

Measurements for a Parabolic Dish
If you want to build a parabolic dish where the focus is 200 mm above the surface,
what measurements do you need?

To make it easy to build, let's have it pointing upwards, and so we choose the x2 =
4ay equation.

And we want "a" to be 200, so the equation becomes:

x2 = 4ay = 4 × 200 × y = 800y

Rearranging so we can calculate heights:

y = x2/800

And here are some height measurements as you run along:

500 Distance Along ("x") Height ("y")

0 mm 0.0 mm
400
100 mm 12.5 mm
300 200 mm 50.0 mm
300 mm 112.5 mm
200
400 mm 200.0 mm
100 500 mm 312.5 mm
600 mm 450.0 mm
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600    

Try to build one yourself, it could be fun! Just be careful, a reflective surface can
concentrate a lot of heat at the focus.

Mathopolis: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10

Copyright © 2022 Rod Pierce