Completing The Square - Relation To The Graph

Relation To The Graph

In analytic geometry, the graph of any quadratic function is a parabola in the xy-plane. Given a quadratic polynomial of the form

the numbers h and k may be interpreted as the Cartesian coordinates of the vertex of the parabola. That is, h is the x-coordinate of the axis of symmetry, and k is the minimum value (or maximum value, if a < 0) of the quadratic function.

In other words, the graph of the function ƒ(x) = x2 is a parabola whose vertex is at the origin (0, 0). Therefore, the graph of the function ƒ(xh) = (xh)2 is a parabola shifted to the right by h whose vertex is at (h, 0), as shown in the top figure. In contrast, the graph of the function ƒ(x) + k = x2 + k is a parabola shifted upward by k whose vertex is at (0, k), as shown in the center figure. Combining both horizontal and vertical shifts yields ƒ(xh) + k = (xh)2 + k is a parabola shifted to the right by h and upward by k whose vertex is at (h, k), as shown in the bottom figure.

Read more about this topic:  Completing The Square

Famous quotes containing the words relation to the, relation to, relation and/or graph:

    The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures the angel; science is still seeking, love has found. Man judges of nature in relation to itself; the angelic spirit judges of it in relation to heaven. In short to the spirits everything speaks.
    Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)

    It would be disingenuous, however, not to point out that some things are considered as morally certain, that is, as having sufficient certainty for application to ordinary life, even though they may be uncertain in relation to the absolute power of God.
    René Descartes (1596–1650)

    In this Journal, my pen is a delicate needle point, tracing out a graph of temperament so as to show its daily fluctuations: grave and gay, up and down, lamentation and revelry, self-love and self-disgust. You get here all my thoughts and opinions, always irresponsible and often contradictory or mutually exclusive, all my moods and vapours, all the varying reactions to environment of this jelly which is I.
    W.N.P. Barbellion (1889–1919)