conic

chandra21

chandra21

Junior Member
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May 23, 2013
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is a hyperbolla is a combined form of two parabollas facing opposite direction.
 
No. The curvature is quite different. It is a reasonable question, though.

One might also compare a parabola to a catenary. Very similar at first glance, but quite different in the details.
 
chandra21 said:
would you please discuss it in detail.
Click to expand...
Your book has some "details", and there are loads of detailed articles online. For which details are you requesting further explanation?

Thank you! ;)
 
For one thing, a hyperbola has two "asymptotes", lines that the hyperbola approaches as you go further and further out the hyperbola. A parabola does not. That means that, as you go further out the hyperbola, the curvature goes to 0. That is not true for a parabola.

Also the hyperbola and parabola (as well as the circle and ellipse) are "conic sections". If you take a true cone (so it has two "napps" that join at there vertices) and slice through it parallel to one side (so your slice crosses only one nappe) the edge is a parabola. If you slice non-parallel (so your slice crosses both nappes) the edges are a hyperbola.

The "eccentricty" of any parabola is exactly 1. A hyperbola can have any eccentricty greater than 1.
 
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