Math Tutorial: Graphing Quadratic Equations

Quadratic equations are often used to descried the parabolic path travelled by an object in motion. An example of this is a ball thrown into the air and plummets to the ground. This type of motion has a horizontal and vertical component and can be graphed on a coordinate grid. The general form of this equation is expressed as Ax² +Bx+C=0 where A, B, and C are variable coefficients. When graphed on a coordinate grid the result is a parabolic shape described as concave up or concave down (see figure 1).

Figure 1 illustrates how varying the coefficient of term A changes the appearance of the parabola. Notice that all equations with a negative coefficient are concave down.