Back to 12.3 The Parabola

12.3 Exercise 18

Avg difficulty 2.5

Balcony-sized solar cookers have been designed for families living in India. The top of a dish has a diameter of 1600 mm. The sun’s rays reflect off the parabolic mirror toward the “cooker,” which is placed 320 mm from the base.

ⓐ Find an equation that models a cross-section of the solar cooker. Assume that the vertex of the parabolic mirror is the origin of the coordinate plane, and that the parabola opens to the right (i.e., has the x-axis as its axis of symmetry).

ⓑ Use the equation found in part ⓐ to find the depth of the cooker.

OpenStax Algebra and Trigonometry 2e, 12.3 The Parabola, exercise 18

AI Tutor

Adapted from College Algebra © 2021 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Sources: College Algebra 2e, Algebra and Trigonometry 2e, Precalculus 2e, College Algebra with Corequisite Support 2e. Imported at revision 4922e46.