parabola Hear it!

parabola Definition

pa·rabo·la (pə rab′ə lə)

noun

Geom. a plane curve which is the path, or locus, of a moving point that remains equally distant from a fixed point (focus) and from a fixed straight line (directrix); curve formed by the section of a cone cut by a plane parallel to the side of the cone

Etymology: ModL < Gr parabolē, lit., application, comparison (see parable): it is produced by the “application” of a given area to a given straight line

parabola Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • joy: Identify the following snippets from various parabolas of joy, and their authors.

Converse of object

  • describe: There was a dead silence of suspense among the crowd as the ball described a lofty parabola.

Adjective modifier

  • cubical: In 1657 he became the first to find the arc length of an algebraic curve when he rectified the cubical parabola.

Modifies a noun

  • y: Fig 3 Graph of parabola y = x 2 Why not try generating and displaying another simple function, say an exponential function?