Rectangular Hyperbola

Date: 06/11/2002 at 22:54:00
From: Brittany
Subject: Rectangular Hyperbola

I was wondering if you could tell me why rectangular hyperbola graphs 
are called rectangular, when the graph itself looks nothing like a 
rectangle.  Is there any connection?  Thanks for your help.

Date: 06/12/2002 at 11:49:55
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Rectangular Hyperbola

Hi Brittany,

It's not so much that the hyperbola looks like a rectangle, but that 
each branch of the hyperbola is bounded by a rectangle (i.e., one of 
the quadrants of the coordinate plane). 

Does that make sense? 

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ 

Date: 06/12/2002 at 18:35:39
From: Brittany
Subject: Thank you (Rectangular Hyperbola)

Yes sir, that does make sense.  Thank you very much for the 
clarification.