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The curve of the chains of a suspension bridge is always an intermediate curve between a parabola and a catenary, but in practice the curve is generally nearer to a parabola due to the weight of the load (i.e. the road) being much larger than the cables themselves, and in calculations the second-degree polynomial formula of a parabola is used.
A line will connect any two points, so a first degree polynomial equation is an exact fit through any two points with distinct x coordinates. If the order of the equation is increased to a second degree polynomial, the following results: = + +. This will exactly fit a simple curve to three points.
In the case of a single parameter, parametric equations are commonly used to express the trajectory of a moving point, in which case, the parameter is often, but not necessarily, time, and the point describes a curve, called a parametric curve. In the case of two parameters, the point describes a surface, called a parametric surface.
Typically, it applies to first-order equations, though in general characteristic curves can also be found for hyperbolic and parabolic partial differential equation. The method is to reduce a partial differential equation (PDE) to a family of ordinary differential equations (ODE) along which the solution can be integrated from some initial data ...
A three-dimensional version of parabolic coordinates is obtained by rotating the two-dimensional system about the symmetry axis of the parabolas. Parabolic coordinates have found many applications, e.g., the treatment of the Stark effect and the potential theory of the edges.
The Fermat spiral with polar equation = can be converted to the Cartesian coordinates (x, y) by using the standard conversion formulas x = r cos φ and y = r sin φ.Using the polar equation for the spiral to eliminate r from these conversions produces parametric equations for one branch of the curve:
Successive parabolic interpolation is a technique for finding the extremum (minimum or maximum) of a continuous unimodal function by successively fitting parabolas (polynomials of degree two) to a function of one variable at three unique points or, in general, a function of n variables at 1+n(n+3)/2 points, and at each iteration replacing the "oldest" point with the extremum of the fitted ...
Consider the problem of calculating the shape of an unknown curve which starts at a given point and satisfies a given differential equation. Here, a differential equation can be thought of as a formula by which the slope of the tangent line to the curve can be computed at any point on the curve, once the position of that point has been calculated.