Can someone enlighten me on what parabolic action or a parabolic blank is? And please forgive me for being ignorant to this terminology.......I know some folks are shaken their head at me while reading this question.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2005 02:53PM by Steve Parks.

Here you go!

[www.rodbuilding.org]

When a rod bends into teh handle, that's what I consider Parabolic. Think of a Parabola from 11th grade Math, a Parabola is some sort of a U shaped curve which is a gradual bend - like this: [www.mat.usach.cl]

Basically, teh rod has no shut off point, the more weight you add, the more it will bend. Glass rods are an example.

Billy,
That is a parabola all right but it sure would make an odd rod with that big soft section in the middle of the rod.

Very true, lol - thanks for pointing that out.

I mean one side of the Parabola, not teh entire one from one infinity point to the other. From the Origin to positive infinity where X is teh variable of the derivitive, lol - nevermind. Calculus was way too long ago to try to remember. We shouldmake it more confusing for Steve, maybe send him a decal of teh Quadratic Equation & the slope of a line so he can add it to his rod, lol.

Emory - this is the equation for a Parabola, or something along those lines, no? X2 +3X +6 - Steve, you writing al this down? lol.

Uh.....yea....I got it! Now I've got this nervous twitch like an Army experiement went bad.

Billy,
Yes, one form of a quadratic equation when plotted will result in a parabola. The general form of the equation for a parabola is Y=ax^2+bx+c. A quadratic equation is defined as one in which no variable appears with a power higher than two. Your memory is better than mine. I didn't remember and wasn't sure so I just looked it up.

Well, as long as we've given Steve a headache...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, lol.

You da man Billy! :)

I sometimes sora get my stories mixed up a little, so don't shoot me if I got the wrong rod designer with the right tale, but here is what I read:

Paul Youngs designing flyrods, talking with some bigshot and customers. Somebody said "what if you just made a straight rod from the butt to the tip, like a 2x4. He said "will, it would bend in a parabala".

Later sombody said "Hey, that is a great name. We will call these rods "parabolic"" Birth of the marketing department in rod building, I imagine.

If you think about this, if you put a 2 x 4 in a vise at one end and pull at the other, then most of the bend (the sharp curved end of the parabala, is at the vise, or the butt if it is a rod. So to me "parabolic" describes a rod that has a lot of bend down to the butt.

I am not engineer, but Iyou bend a tapered rod and curve fit the bend I suspect you will get a higher order equation than a parabola. I doubt if many rods actually bend in a true parabala.