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Assignment 9
Calculate the equation of the parabola going through the points ,
and
.
Solution
The general equation of a parabola is:
We have to calculate the values of ,
and
based on the fact that the given points lie on the parabola.
lies on the parabola, thus
.
lies on the parabola, thus
lies on the parabola, thus
So we have two solve two linear equations with two variables and
:
Multiply the second equation by and subtract the result from the first equation (in this way we eliminate
):
If we substitute this value of in the second equation we get for
: