Question

Which of the quadratic functions has the narrowest graph?

Answer 1

A quadratic function's graph being wide or narrow is determined or depended on a-term:

$\large{y = a {x}^{2} + bx + c}$

If |a| has a lot of value, for example a = 2 or a = 100. The graph will get narrower if increasing the value of |a|. On the other hand, If |a| has small value, for example a = 1/2 or a = 1/10000. The graph would be wide.

Also it does not matter if a-term is negative or not since a-term being positive or negative determines if a parabola is upward or downward. Only |a| determines how narrow/wide the graph is.

From the question, it is clear that the parabola y = 2x^2 is the narrowest graph since it has the highest |a| value out of all choices.

Answer

• y = 2x^2