As much as we love sharing techniques, strategies, and opinions with you, nothing beats a good old-fashioned feature release. This month, we’ll share a little bit about a brand new toy to represent and parse conic sections: a conic type!
This tool looks at a string, and if that string can be defined as a quadratic, then it allows you to parse out all sorts of information (like a coefficient matrix!). It also has supports for vertical and horizontal parabolas with room to expand in the future.
So how does this help you?
Have you ever asked students to enter the equation of a parabola and wished those intercepts you clicked on could be captured? Or wished you could use the coordinates of intersection?
You’re not alone:
Having those values at your fingertips and not being able to use them can be so frustrating 
. The conic type solves those problems for you.
Start by defining a conic using some student input (just like you would with xyLine).
Ask CL to look for the x-intercepts of the graph.
The x-intercepts are given as a list that you can use in a graph or for calculations.
Looking for intersections? Start by subtracting one function from the other. Then find the x-intercepts of that new function!
