Lexic.us

Definition of Parabola

1. Noun. A plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the curve.

Definition of Parabola

1. n. A kind of curve; one of the conic sections formed by the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane parallel to one of its sides. It is a curve, any point of which is equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed straight line, called the directrix. See Focus.

Definition of Parabola

1. Noun. (geometry) The conic section formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to a tangent plane to the cone; the locus of points equidistant from a fixed point (the focus) and line (the directrix). ¹

2. Noun. (rhetoric) The explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose. A parable. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Parabola

1. a conic section [n -S]

Medical Definition of Parabola

1. Origin: NL, fr. Gr.; so called because its axis is parallel to the side of the cone. See Parable, and cf. Parabole. A kind of curve; one of the conic sections formed by the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane parallel to one of its sides. It is a curve, any point of which is equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed straight line, called the directrix. See Focus. One of a group of curves defined by the equation y = ax^n where n is a positive whole number or a positive fraction. For the cubical parabola n = 3; for the semicubical parabola n = 3/2. See Cubical, and Semicubical. The parabolas have infinite branches, but no rectilineal asymptotes. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Parabola

Literary usage of Parabola

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics: With Special by Joseph William Mellor (1902)
"The parabola (resumed). Returning now to the special curves, let P(x, y) be a point on the parabolic curve (Fig. 25) referred to the coordinate axes Ox, Oy; ..."

2. Projective Geometry by Oswald Veblen, John Wesley Young (1918)
"The Klh tmr parabola FIG. 22 pole of /, is called the center of the conic. ... An ellipse or a hyperbola is a central conic, but a parabola is not. 2. ..."

3. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1911)
"To construct the parabola when the focus and directrix are given, ... Any number of points on the parabola are obtained by taking any point E on the ..."

4. Plane and Solid Analytic Geometry by William Fogg Osgood, William Caspar Graustein (1921)
"Diameters of a parabola. When one focus and the corresponding directrix of a central conic — an ellipse or a hyperbola — are held fast and the center is ..."

5. Analytic Geometry by Lewis Parker Siceloff, George Wentworth, David Eugene Smith (1922)
"EQUATION OF THE parabola 115. To find the equation of the parabola when the line through the focus perpendicular to the directrix is the x axis and the ..."

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