The trouble with parabolas is that different books use different notation. They are all equivalent, but they are just different enough to cause confusion. I will arbitrarily pick one of the notations. If your book is different, just tell me what your book gives for the standard equation for a parabola in the thank-you note below and I'll change it on here to fit your notation. One common one is:where (h,k) = the vertex, p is the distance from center to focus, positive if parabola opens right and negative if it opens left. We plot the focus point and draw the the directrix, a vertical line through x=-2 on the x-axis: The vertex is a point exactly half-way between the focus and the directrix line. That is the point (h,k) = (1,7) p = the distance from the center to the focus is 3 units here. The focal chord (sometimes called the latus rectum) is a line which is 4p units long (in this case 4*3 or 12 units long) bisected at the focus. So it's 6 units up from the focus and 6 units down from the focus: And now we can sketch the parabola: h=1,k=7, 4p = 12, so the equation is Edwin