Hyperbola
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A hyperbola is a conic section with eccentricity greater than one and consists of two separate branches.
Hyperbola is a high school-level concept that would be first encountered in a pre-calculus course covering conic sections. It is listed in the California State Standards for Algebra II.
Prerequisites
| Conic Section: | The conic sections are the classes of nondegenerate curves generated by the intersections of a plane with one or two nappes of a cone. A conic section can also be realized as the zero set of a quadratic equation in two variables. |
| Locus: | A locus is the set of all points (usually forming a curve or surface) satisfying some condition. For example, the locus of points in a plane that are equidistant from a given point is a circle. |
| Plane Curve: | A plane curve is a curve that lies in a single plane. A plane curve may be closed or open. |