How do you know which conic section you are graphing when it is written in general form?

1 Answer
seph
Oct 19, 2014

A conic section in general form has the equation

#Ax^2 + Bx + Cy^2 + Dy + E = 0#

when either #A# or #C# is missing (i.e #A = 0# or #C = 0#), you're dealing with a parabola.

when #A# and #C# has the same signs, you're dealing with either an ellipse or a circle. If #A# and #C# have the same value, you're dealing with a circle. Otherwise, you're dealing with an ellipse

when #A# and #C# have different signs, you're dealing with a hyperbola

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