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Langara College - Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Internet Resources for the Calculus Student - Topics in Precalculus
Functions of the form f(x)=a*x^2+b*x+c are called quadratic functions
beacuse
they involve the second power or square of the variable, and
"quadratus"
was the latin word for a square(*). Such
functions arise in applications whenever
we are interested in the product of a pair of linearly
related quantities.
You can use our
Graph Explorer to see the effects of changing the parameters. (Any
Computer
Algebra System or Graphing Calculator would do as well of course but
the
detailed instructions
might be a bit different.) You can also enter a quadratic as a product
of linear factors and then also graph the factors separately to see how
the x-intercepts of the product are related to those of its factors,
and this
"game" has you choose the coefficients a,b, and c to make the graph
of y=a*x^2+b*x+c match a given parabola.
For guidance through a more detailed exploration you can work
through
our on-line lab on
Quadratic Functions.
Check out our database for more links to
material on quadratic functions .
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