The definition of a hyperbola is the set of all points whose distances from a fixed point, called

the focus, and from a fixed line, called the directrix, are always in the same ratio. That is, the
distance from each point on the hyperbola to the focus divided by the distance from the same
point on the hyperbola to the directrix will always be the same regardless of the point on the
hyperbola. An equivalent definition is the set of all points whose distances from two fixed foci
have a constant difference.

Again, the difference between taxicab distance and Euclidean distance makes hyperbolas for
these two geometries look different. Taxicab hyperbolas will always take on the appearance of
two line segments of equal Euclidean length, each with a single ray extending from each
endpoint in either a horizontal or vertical direction. In fact, each segment with its two rays is the
reflection across the focus point of the other segment and two rays.

Unfortunately, as with ellipses in Geometers Sketchpad, we have not found a way to create a
custom tool that will display the graph of a taxicab hyperbola. However, completing the
construction is much easier to do in taxicab geometry than with Euclidean regardless of which
definition from above is used to complete the construction.

The following are the steps necessary to construct a taxicab hyperbola given two foci:

1. Begin with a square grid. Graph two points for the foci and label them F1 and F2.
2. Construct a segment between the two foci and find its midpoint. This will be the center.
3. Construct a line parallel to the y-axis and one that is perpendicular to it, both passing
through the center.
4. Using the taxicab circle tool, construct a taxicab circle centered at the same center and a
radius the same length as the segment between the two foci. Construct the intersection of
this circle with the parallel line and then the intersection with the perpendicular line.
5. For each focus, change the color of the segment from the taxicab circle closest to it to
signify that it is part of the hyperbola.
6. For each segment, construct rays from the endpoints on the parallel and perpendicular
lines. These will complete the hyperbola.
7. Hide everything but the four rays, the two segments, and the two foci.



In Euclidean Geometry, we have two equations associated with hyperbolas:

x-h

-
y-k

, which opens left and right

y-h

-
x-k

, which opens up and down

where (h,k) is the center (the midpoint etween the two foci), a is the distance from the center
to each vertex and 2b is the length of the conjugate axis (perpendicular to the transverse axis
passing through the center and the two foci). However, this equation does not help with finding
the location of the two foci. These locations are actually c units down the transverse axis in
either direction from the center. This value can be found by using one of the following equations:

c

-a

or c

(not the Pythagorean Theorem)

This makes the connection between the equation and the definition of a hyperbola difficult to
decipher. In contrast, this connection is extremely easy to see with the equation used for a
taxicab hyperbola. In fact, we can derive the equation from the definition that there is a constant
difference between the distances from each of the two foci. Say the coordinates for the two foci
are (a,b) and (g,h). Earlier, we defined the distance between two points as the absolute value of
the difference between the x-values added to the absolute value of the difference between the
y-values. We can then find the distance from a given point (x,y) to each of the foci by doing the
following calculations:

focus 1: |x-a| |y-|
focus 2: |x-g| |y-h|

Therefore, the difference of the distance from the second focus from the distance to the first
focus would be given by the following equation:

|xa| |y||xg| |yh| d

where d is the constant difference.

But we must account for the situation where the distance from the second focus is greater than
the distance from the first focus by taking the absolute value of the entire left side of the
equation. This gives us the final equation for the hyperbola:

||xa| |y||xg| |yh|| d

Putting this equation into Graphing Calculator 4.0 shows that this works and produced a taxicab
hyperbola:



We can actually use this same process to derive the equation for a Euclidean hyperbola for
given foci (a,b) and (g,h). We first find the distance from an (x,y) to each focus:

focus 1:

x-a

y-

focus 2:

x-g

y-h

We then find the difference between these two distances and take the absolute value to account
for cases where the distance to the second focus is greater than the distance to the first focus.
This gives us the following equation:

|xa

xg

yh

| d

And this equation works when used in Graphing Calculator 4.0: