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REVIEW OF CONIC SECTIONS In this section we give geometric definitions of parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas and derive their standard equations. They are called conic sections, or conics, because they result from intersecting a cone with a plane as shown in Figure 1. ellipse parabola hyperbola FIGURE 1 Conics PARABOLAS parabola axis focus F directrix vertex FIGURE 2 y P(x, y) F(0, p) y A parabola is the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed point F (called the focus) and a fixed line (called the directrix). This definition is illustrated by Figure 2. Notice that the point halfway between the focus and the directrix lies on the parabola; it is called the vertex. The line through the focus perpendicular to the directrix is called the axis of the parabola. In the 16th century Galileo showed that the path of a projectile that is shot into the air at an angle to the ground is a parabola. Since then, parabolic shapes have been used in designing automobile headlights, reflecting telescopes, and suspension bridges. (See Challenge Problem 2.14 for the reflection property of parabolas that makes them so useful.) We obtain a particularly simple equation for a parabola if we place its vertex at the origin O and its directrix parallel to the x-axis as in Figure 3. If the focus is the point 0, p, then the directrix has the equation y  p. If Px, y is any point on the parabola, then the distance from P to the focus is  PF   sx   y  p and the ...
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