Here's out most basic quadratic:

He's also our most basic parabola.  I'll call him Standard Parabola Guy!

Before I show you his graph, let's understand what this guy does for a living:

He squares things!

He's a squaring machine!  Things go in... and their squares spit out:

The guys that go in the machine (our inputs) are the x guys...

and the guys that spit out (the outputs) are the y guys...

x guys go in... and y guys spit out...

 Let's shoot some numbers through our squaring machine and get Standard Parabola Guy's graph:

Here's the part you need to know... COLD!

From now on, we have a new motto:

Plotting points is for sissies!

* The official Webster's dictionary definition of a "sissy"
is "a weak or feeble person."

Who wants to be weak and/or feeble?  NOT ME!
I want to be an algebra animal, a math monster... a SUPER GEEK!

In the next sections, I'll show you how to graph all sorts of parabolas... and never once will we have to make one of these pathetic tables:

We won't need to plot points, take stabs in the dark and make guesses... because we'll be super-genius graphers!