parabolic
/ˌparəˈbɒlɪk
/adjective
1Of or like a parabola or part of one: a parabolic mirror behind a spotlight projects a parallel beam...
- He also studied spherical and parabolic mirrors, and understood how refraction by a lens will allow images to be focused and magnification to take place.
- A primary concave parabolic mirror converges the light to one focus of a concave ellipsoidal mirror.
- The extracts quoted by Eutocius from Diocles’ On burning mirrors showed that he was the first to prove the focal property of a parabolic mirror.
2Of or expressed in parables: parabolic teaching...
- Using parabolic teaching again, Jesus personifies the religious leaders as a son who says he'll work in his father's vineyard but is a no-show.
- As we shall see, narrative parables are generally considered to be the most distinctive form of parabolic teaching used by Jesus.
Derivatives
parabolical
- The workhorse of such system will be four movable frames and twelve parabolical mirrors built in 1993 for the EAS-TOP [3] cosmic ray experiment.
- Sometimes vertical and horizontal values may be superimposed so that the curve jumps back and forth between parabolical and s-curve.
parabolically
/ adverb ...- Turning the other cheek is morally ludicrous, but so too is to read all of Christ's utterances parabolically… except this one.
- In 1847 Boehm produced an entirely new model, with a head joint which narrowed parabolically towards its top, a one-piece cylindrical body, and a cylindrical foot.
Origin
Late Middle English: via late Latin from Greek parabolikos, from parabolē 'application' (see parabola).