Exercise 17 Page 423

From the graph above, we can deduce the following facts.

• When |a| < 1, the graph y=ax^2 is a vertical shrink of the graph of y=x^2.
• When |a| > 1, the graph y=ax^2 is a a vertical stretch of the graph of y=x^2.

With these in mind, the graph of y=0.5x^2 should be wider than the graph of y=x^2 since 0.5 < 1.

We see that the graphs have the same vertex (0,0) and the same axis of symmetry, y-axis.