Characteristics
A function is considered to be a quadratic function if the equation has a degree or highest exponent of 2. The standard form of a quadratic equation is y = ax2 + bx + c where a, b, c are real numbers and a
0. All functions of this form have similar characteristics.
Tables of Quadratics
In table form, all quadratic functions have a common second difference. This can be useful not only in identifying if a certain set of data can be modeled by a quadratic function, but also in determining what quadratic function would model the data. The table below demonstrates a set of data that can be modeled by a quadratic function. Since the x-coordinates are going up by one every time, the constant second difference of the y -coordinates means this table can be modeled by a quadratic function.
