examples of parabola in real life?

Question

I'm doing project and looking for examples of parabola in life

Answer 1

St. Louis Arch... it's an upside down parabola.

http://hirokiogawa.at.infoseek.co.jp/St.Louis.jpg

Answer 2

Examples Of Parabola

Answer 3

A satellite dish is parabolic with a receiver at the focus. The metal dish behind a car's headlight is parabolic with the headlight at the focus..

One property of a parabola is that if you take any point on the parabola and draw two lines from that point, one to the focus and one parallel to the axis of symmetry, these two lines have opposite angles to the parabola. When things are reflected it is at the opposite angle than the one with which it strikes the object.

This means that when satellite signals come straight into the parabolic satellite dish, they are reflected to the focus, where the receiver is. With flashlight it works in reverse: waves of light come from the focus where the bulb is, and are all reflected straight ahead.

If you throw something up but not straight up, it's arc forms a parabola. That's just the way the force of gravity works.

Answer 4

Two examples of 3 dimensional parabolas (paraboloids):
1) If you watch an outdoor football game on TV (college or pro), you may see some people on the sideline that are carrying what appear to be cones that they point at the action on the field. These are parabolic shields with a microphone at the focus of the paraboloid.

2) Car headlight mirrors are parabolic mirrors with the light bulb placed at the focus of the paraboloid.

The reason for the placement of the microphone and the light bulb is that waves that are emitted from the focus of a paraboloid are reflected from the paraboloid in a direction parallel to the direction that the paraboloid opens. Also, waves that enter the paraboloid parallel to the direction that the paraboloid opens will reflect to the focus.

Answer 5

In nature, approximations of parabolas and paraboloids are found in many diverse situations. The most well-known instance of the parabola in the history of physics is the trajectory of a particle or body in motion under the influence of a uniform gravitational field without air resistance (for instance, a baseball flying through the air, neglecting air friction).
Another situation in which parabola may arise in nature is in two-body orbits, for example, of a small planetoid or other object under the influence of the gravitation of the sun. Such parabolic orbits are a special case that are rarely found in nature. Orbits that form a hyperbola or an ellipse are much more common. In fact, the parabolic orbit is the borderline case between those two types of orbit. An object following a parabolic orbit moves at the exact escape velocity of the object it is orbitting, while elliptical orbits are slower and hyperbolic orbits are faster.
Approximations of parabolas are also found in the shape of cables of suspension bridges. Freely hanging cables do not describe parabolas, but rather catenary curves. Under the influence of a uniform load (for example, the deck of bridge), however, the cable is deformed toward a parabola.

Answer 6

If you throw a stone up in the sky, in any angle you like, it falls on the ground. The path traced is always a parabola

Answer 7

Throw a stone. Its trajectory until it hits the ground can be described by a part of a parabola.

Answer 8

A Parabolic Lens

in telescopes, magnifying glasses...

Answer 9

satellite disc and suspension for hanging bridges(but sometimes suspensions are something hyperbolic)... loose rope (hanged) zeroes are important to see the x-intercepts. Later you will learn how these zeroes used in problem solving like at what time the ball reach the ground (in projectile motion)

Answer 10

Parabolic solar cooker.
The environmentally friendly way of cooking food.

Answer 11

A flashlight is parabolic, the bulb is placed at the focus to maximize illumination.