Section Warm-Up

Let’s begin our discussion of parabolas by working through an interactive.

Go to Math WareHouse's Parabola interactive and follow these instructions:

Drag the black dot which controls the directrix, or the red dot which is the focus. Pay close attention to what happens to the vertex equation of the parabola. How does it change as you move the focus and the directrix? What happens to the vertex of the parabola? When is it facing upward, and when is it facing downward?