Approximating a curve with quadratics
This applet illustrates the approximation of a curve by quadratics. The values of a and b determine the endpoints of the interval over which the curve is defined. Since we need an even number of subintervals for our approximations, the value entered for n is doubled by the program. Checking the show areas box shades the areas under the quadratics to illustrate the approximation to the area under the curve.