In Euclidean and Taxicab Geometry a parabola is defined as a locus points with the property

that each point is equidistant from a given focus (a fixed point) and directrix (a fixed straight line
not passing through the focus). The only difference between a parabola in Euclidean Geometry
and Taxicab Geometry is the shape. In Euclidean Geometry a parabola is a curve shaped like
an arch while in Taxicab Geometry a parabola is made up of rays and line segments which
causes it to consist of sharp edges.

When constructing a parabola in Euclidean Geometry, we usually begin by constructing the line
perpendicular to the directrix that passes through the focus. The midpoint of the segment
between the focus and the intersection of this perpendicular line with the directrix will be the
vertex of the parabola. However, since Taxicab Geometry involves only horizontal and vertical
lines, this will only work if our directrix is a horizontal or vertical line. Therefore, the Euclidean
construction will not work for every case in Taxicab.

The following are the steps necessary to construct a taxicab parabola in Geometers Sketchpad:

1. Construct a point for the focus and label it. Also construct a line and label it the directrix.
2. Off to the side of the screen, construct a line that is approximately vertical. Construct two
points on the line (do not use the two points used to construct the line) and label them A and
B. Construct the segment between them. This will be the radius for that taxicab circles that
will be used throughout the construction.
3. Construct a point on the directrix to be used as the center of a taxicab circle. Use the
taxicab circle tool to construct one with this center and a radius of AB.
4. Select the two vertices of the taxicab circle to the left and right of the center and also
select the directrix. Construct two lines through these vertices parallel to the directrix.
5. Construct another taxicab circle with the center as the focus and the radius AB.
6. Move the focus until its circle intersects the leftmost parallel line with two of its opposite
sides.
7. Mark the first intersection point, and with it and A selected, construct the locus. Do the
same for the other intersection point.
8. Move the focus to the right until one of the intersection points disappears. Mark the new
intersection point, and with it and A selected, construct the locus.
9. Move the focus to the left until one of the intersection points disappears. Mark the new
intersection point, and with it and A selected, construct the locus.
10. Move the focus until its circle intersects the rightmost parallel line with two of its opposite
sides. Repeat steps 7 through 9 for this parallel line.
11. Hide everything except the focus, directrix, and the loci. You should now be able to
move the focus and/or the directrix and still retain the parabola.




In Euclidean geometry, a parabola is defined by one of the two following equations:

, which results in a parabola opening either up or down

, which results in a parabola opening either left or right

where (h,k) is the vertex and p is the distance from the focus to the vertex (and thus the
distance from the directrix to the vertex). This means that the distance from the focus to the
directrix is 2p. Unfortunately, these equations assume that the directrix is either horizontal or
vertical, so they cannot be generalized to every parabola.

Similarly, the equation for a taxicab parabola cannot be generalized to every parabola. In fact,
we have we three different situations because of the way in which we find the shortest distance
from a point to a line in Taxicab Geometry (see more information at
http://emat6000taxicab.weebly.com/from-point-to-line.html) because distance involves only the
lengths of horizontal and/or vertical segments. The minimum distance from a point to the line
will be the shortest of either the horizontal or vertical distances. One case involves the length of
a vertical segment, the second involves the length of a horizontal segment, and the third
involves the lengths of a horizontal segment and a vertical segment when finding the distance
from the focus to the directrix.

The first case involves the length of a horizontal segment. This occurs when the horizontal
distance is smaller than the vertical distance. For this case, the directrix must have a slope
whose absolute value is less than 1. In Taxicab Geometry, these types of lines are commonly
known as gradual lines.



Say the equation of the directrix is . If we know that the vertical distance is the one
that we will use, then we know that the point that lies on this distance from the parabola will lie
on the line , where the difference between j and c is the common distance of the point
from the focus and from the directrix. We can use the taxicab distance formula to obtain
| | | |, or equivalently, | | . This makes sense intuitively
because the x-values for the focus and this point are the same, so only the y-value changes.
We can generalize this to the following equation:

| | | | | |



The second case involves the length of a horizontal segment. This means the horizontal
distance is less than the vertical distance, so the absolute value of the slope must be greater
than 1. In taxicab geometry, these types of lines are known as steep lines:



Lets again say the equation of the directrix is . We then know that for any point (x,y)
only the x-value will change. We can solve the equation of our directrix for x:

We now have enough information to write our distance formula: |

| | |, or
equivalently, |

|. We can then generalize this case for all points by the following
equation:

| | | | |

|



The third case involves summing the lengths of a horizontal and vertical segment. This occurs
when the horizontal distance and the vertical distance from the focus to the directrix are the
same, so either can be used as the minimum distance. When the absolute value of the slope of
the directrix is 1, this will always occur:



Since either the change of x or the change of y can be used for this situation (because either
case will result in the same taxicab distance), we can use either equation to produce the graph.
The first image below uses the equation from the first case while the second image uses the
equation from the second case:



Unlike the equation for a Euclidean parabola, the taxicab parabola seems much more intuitive.
The taxicab equation involves the very definition of a parabola: the set of points equidistant from
the focus and the directrix. It would be nice if we could have a similar formula for Euclidean that
incorporates this definition. If, for instance, we take a directrix from the first case with a slope
whose absolute value is less than 1 and use the same difference from the taxicab case and use
the Euclidean definition of distance, we would obtain the following equation:

This equation actually does produce the Euclidean parabola:



We can also use the equation that pertains to the second case and still obtain the
corresponding Euclidean parabola:

In this way, we are not restricted to a Euclidean parabola that must have either a horizontal or
vertical directrix.