Shifting parabola Left/ Right is a practice of Khan Academy.

The parabola's horizontal translation is changed by the value of a variable, h, that is subtracted from x before the squaring operation.Our starting or reference parabola formula looks like this.

If h is 6 we can say that the parabola is translated by 6 units.

The graph shows the translation.The transformed parabola is drawn in black and transparent light gray.

There is an animation that shows many horizontal translations for parabola.The difference between x and h is squared.Positive and negative values translate the parabola to the right and left.The reference and transformed parabola would be the same if h was 0

You have to subtract from x to move the parabola to the right.The x-axis is not related to movements to the left.If you want to move the parabola to the right, you have to subtract 4 from x and square that result.

The subtraction from x happens before the squaring.Imagine if we translated the parabola 3 units to the right.The y-coordinate at x is 5.

How do you translate the parabola to the left?You subtract a negative number from x.This appears to be an addition to x.When we translate the parabola 6 units to the left, we can calculate the y-coordinate.We are going to calculate at x and 2.

If you want to move the parabola to the left, subtract a negative number from x.This could be an addition since we are subtracting a negative number.Here's an example.