What is a Parabolic Curve

PARABOLIC CURVE

If you want to understand what a parabolic curve is just throw a baseball The are the ball travels as leaves your hand and fly back to the ground takes the shape of a parabola, or high arch because of grainy. We can calculate the trajectory of we know two things a foxed point the focus your hand or the point where the ball makes contact with a bat) and a fixed line (the directrix-the distance the ball travels) Any point on the trajectory is an equal distance from the focus and the

directrix. Why is this important? Well, besides letting us calculate just how far a home run was actually hit, parabolic curves have important implications in everything from suspension bridges to car headlights to satellite dishes Many constructed arches resemble parabolic curves, but they are not true parabolas because mathematically their points are not at an equal distance from a directrix and focus The Arc de Triumph in Paris is just one example of an arch that is not a true parabolic curve even though it appears to be one