Question

What is the mathematical term to describe the a value of a parabola
y=ax^2+bx+c

What i mean is the steepness of the parabola...what is the mathematical term

Answer 1

In the polynomial \(ax^2+bx+c\),
\(ax^2\) is called the leading term and, \(a\) is called "leading coefficient"

Answer 2

yes but when using that to describe a parabola

such as y=x^2
and y=0.5x^2

when looking at the Domain values [0,5]

we can see that y=x^2 graph is more steep than 0.5x^2... it is because of the coefficient..is there a special mathematical term for this? or should i just use plain English.

Answer 3

I don't know of a mathematical term for this. In this case plain English is, I believe , , perfectly adequate.