gone parabolic (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


>
> At 12/2/2010 11:27 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
> ><<
> >But I now wonder if there's another source of the "gone parabolic" --
> >the writer first conflated "hyperbole/hyperbolic" (thinking of the
> >growth as "excessive") with "hyperbola/hyperbolic", and then somehow
> >chose a different conic section, the parabola?
> >
> >Joel
> >
> >"Gone ballistic", in that the trajectory of an artillery shell
describes a
> >parabola?
> >
> >Robin
>
> Perhaps not the best metaphor for exponential (speaking figuratively)
> growth -- an artillery shell eventually intersects the sphere of the
> earth (unless, of course, it was initiated with escape velocity).
>
> Joel
>

And for those of us who are pedantic about such stuff, the path of an
artillery shell is an ellipse which intersects the earth's surface.  The
difference between the ellipse and a parabola is small enough to be
ignored, though.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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