Question

An engineer designs a satellite dish with a parabolic cross-section. The dish is  5m wide at the opening, and the focus is placed 1 2. m from the vertex. Position a coordinate system with the origin at the vertex and the x-axis on the parabola’s axis of symmetry and find an equation of the parabola

Answer 1

Consider the satellite dish is open rightward parabola

y² = 4 ax  ........(1)

Clearly a = 1.2 m

(1) ⇒ y² = 4(1.2)

y² = 4.8x