What-If-Not Conic Constructions #1
- Author:
- Steve Phelps
- Topic:
- Constructions
The Parabola Construction
We begin with the construction of a parabola. Play through the construction. Drag the points so you understand how the parts of the construction behave.
A parabola is the locus of all points equidistant from a point and a line. We can also discuss eccentricity which is the ratio of the these two distances
Distance[F,P]:Distance[P,D].
. There are four construction characteristics that might be interesting to investigate.
- What happens if the perpendicular bisector is perpendicular, but is not a bisector?
- What happens if the perpendicular bisector is a bisector, but is not perpendicular?
- What happens if the perpendicular to the directrix constructed at D is not perpendicular?
- What happens if the directrix is not a line?