Question

Which of the following are real life examples of reflective property of a parabola?

• A. Satellite dish
• B. Headlight
• C. Fountains
• D. Plane mirror

Answer 1

Answer: (A), (B), (C)

The correct options are
A Satellite dish
B Headlight
C Fountains

While the parabola has many beautiful geometric properties as we have seen, it also has a remarkable property known as the $reflection$ $property$, which is used in such diverse places as $car$ $headlights$ and $satellite$ $dishes$. A car headlight emits light from one source, but is able to focus that light into a beam so that the light does not move off in all directions — as lamplight does — but is focused directly ahead. Satellite dishes do the opposite. They collect electromagnetic rays as they arrive and concentrate them at one point, thereby obtaining a strong signal.

$Headlight$ $reflectors$ and $satellite$ $dishes$ are designed so their cross-sections are parabolic in shape and the point of collection or emission is the focus of the parabola.