PARABOLA Exercise 1

Determine the vertex, focus, and directrix of the parabola given by the equation

Exercise 2
Sketch the graph of the parabola in the exercise above.

Exercise 3
Determine the vertex, focus, and directrix of the parabola given by the equation

Exercise 4
Determine the standard equation of the parabola whose focus is the point directrix is the line y=-4. and whose

Ans 1:

Rewritten in standard form, this equation is

This shows that the parabola has a vertical axis and opens downward (since d is negative). The vertex is at the origin , and the focus lies 2 units below the vertex. This puts the focus at the point . Finally, the directrix is the horizontal line 2 units above the vertex. Its equation is given by

Ans 2:

Ans 3: The first task that must be performed here is to rewrite the equation in standard form. Leaving the terms with the variable y on the left side of the equation and moving everything else to the right yields

As we have seen above, we need to insert the appropriate constant in the space provided on the left--hand side of the equation in order to make that side a perfect square. In this case, that quantity is 4. Thus, we arrive at

After some algebra, we see that this is the same as

or

Now we can ``read off'' the necessary information to solve this problem. First, the vertex of this parabola is clearly . Next, since

and the axis of the parabola is horizontal, I know that the focus must be located 3 units to the left of the vertex, placing it at the point . Finally, the directrix is the vertical line 3 units to the right of the vertex, which is the line

Ans 4: Given the fact that the vertex lies directly in between the focus and the directrix, we see that the vertex of this parabola is at the point that . Once we see this, we can quickly determine

Finally, we simply need to know the orientation of the axis of the parabola. Because the directrix is horizontal, I know that the axis is vertical. Hence, the squared term in the equation of this parabola must involve the variable x. With all of this information, we can conclude that the equation of this parabola is given by