hyperbola

The fact that every circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola that can be drawn can be described by a quadratic equation in x’s and y’s is helpful for science because all of these curves are found in the real world.

The ellipse is the curve that describes how planets orbit around the sun, and the path followed by the shadow of the tip of a sundial during a day is a hyperbola.

By contrast, equations with quadratic terms—ones that include values for x2 and/or y2—always produce one of the following four types of curve: circle, ellipse, parabola or hyperbola.

"Not every hyperbola is a burial or a grave — there's tree roots, there's masses, and other things in the substrate," Small says.

It placed several satellites into orbit around Earth, including a radio satellite developed by an amateur radio group and the Beijing Institute of Technology. i-Space hopes that Hyperbola rockets will help to bolster China’s burgeoning commercial space industry.