So I’m in 10th grade academic math and my teacher is pretty good at explaining concepts, formulas, etc. But the one thing I can’t seem to grasp her explaining of is quadratic equations and parabola, can anyone explain it simply?
In: Mathematics
Were gonna get a lot of explanations as to what exactly they are here, I’m going to instead explain why they are taught to you.
Line equations are by far the simplest equations, their simplicity makes them the most common in all sorts of things, they are applicable to anything done at a constant speed. Quadratic equations come in second after lines.
Lines represent something changing at a constant speed, quadratic equations represent when something is **accelerating** at a constant acceleration.
For example you may have learned in high school physics that gravity is a constant 9.81 meters per second squared acceleration here on earth. This constant acceleration is what makes say throwing a ball is modeled by a quadratic equation and why the shape it makes when thrown is a parabola.
Each of the numbers there represent something different, a is the acceleration constant, b is the initial speed constant and c is the initial position constant, just like in a line, mx = b, m represents speed and b represents initial position.
The more detailed reasons for why this is the case will be explained in calculus if you ever take it but this is the reason why they show up in a lot of places.
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