Question

Find the equation of the parabola with focus (5, 1) and directrix y = -1.

Answer 1

Check the picture below.

since the focus point is above the directrix, that simply means the parabola is a vertical one, and therefore the square variable is the "x".

keeping in mind that, there's a distance "p" from the vertex to either the focus point or the directrix, that puts the vertex half-way between those fellows, in this case at 0, right between 1 and -1, as you see in the picture, and the parabola looks like so.

since the parabola is opening upwards, the value for "p" is positive, thus

$\bf \textit{parabola vertex form with focus point distance} \\\\ \begin{array}{llll} 4p(x- h)=(y- k)^2 \\\\ \boxed{4p(y- k)=(x- h)^2} \end{array} \qquad \begin{array}{llll} vertex\ ( h, k)\\\\ p=\textit{distance from vertex to }\\ \qquad \textit{ focus or directrix} \end{array}\\\\ -------------------------------\\\\ \begin{cases} h=5\\ k=0\\ p=1 \end{cases}\implies 4(1)(y-0)=(x-5)^2 \\\\\\ 4y=(x-5)^2\implies y=\cfrac{1}{4}(x-5)^2$