How b Affects the Placement of a Parabola on the Coordinate Grid

Now that all presentations have been made, I showed the class how b determines the placement of the line of symmetry of the parabola. The location of the line of symmetry will then give you the x coordinate of the vertex of the parabola. When you know the x coordinate of the vertex, you can put this value into the parabola's equation and determine the y coordinate of the vertex. The formula for determining the line of symmetry of any parabola is -b/2a.

Tonight's Homework: Read lesson 9.3, and answer questions in the first column only ( 21 - 41, FCO) on page 521. In addition, please do 9.2 ( 10 - 46, first column only).