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Characterisations of the parabola
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2019
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Three familiar properties of a parabola are that it is the locus of points that are equidistant from the focus and the directrix, that it can be created by an intersection of a plane and a cone, and that incoming rays parallel to the axis are reflected to a single point. The first two are often used as definitions, and the third may be used as an alternative definition or characterisation.
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