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
Hey, you know the times table, right? Check out all the squares, like 1×1=1, 2×2=4, 3×3=9, etc.
That pattern, 1, 4, 16, 25, 36, 49, … is the pattern of “x squared” for x=1, 2, 3,…
So the ordered pairs of x and x squared are (1,1), (2,4), (3,9), etc. if you draw these dots they make the rough outline of the parabola on the graph.
Can we smooth it out? Yes by using “rational” and “real” x’s like 0.25 and sqrt(3) and pi.
Finally the equations like y=x^2 describe this pattern. Saying okay my y’s (outputs) are gonna be the squares of the x’s, whatever those are in the problem…
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