Question

Describe in your own words how to graph a parabola!

Specifically how do you find the vertex? {Explain in detail and work through an example.}
How do you find the x-intercepts? {Explain in detail and work through an example.}

Answer 1

To find the vortex, find the derivatives of the function and set it to zero because it indicates the x-points when the function changes direction. Once the x-point is found, plug it back in to the original function and get the y-point, and if y-point is positive, it mean the vortex is above the x-axis, and if negative, it's below the x-axis.

To find the x-intercepts, simply set the function to zero, indicating that y-point is zero.

To graph a parabola, the simplest way is to find x-y points and plot point-by-point. (They fast way: each value beside the functions means something. Like shifting down, up, left, right, etc. (I don't remember specific).