The constant shelling did not bother him as much as the loss of his food. As the siege wore on, fewer and fewer horses, mules, and dogs were seen wandering about Vicksburg. Shoe leather became a last resort of sustenance for many adults.
If the graph of a quadratic function has two x-intercepts, then the line of symmetry is the vertical line through the midpoint of the x-intercepts. The x-intercepts of the graph above are at -5 and 3. The line of symmetry goes through -1, which is the average of -5 and 3. (-5 + 3)/2 = -2/2 = -1.
Asymptotes of Secant, Cosecant, and Cotangent. To find the x-intercepts and asymptotes of secant, cosecant, and cotangent, rewrite them in terms of sine and cosine. Notice that since secant and cosecant have 1 in the numerator and a trig function in the denominator, they can never equal zero; they do not have x-intercepts. The vertical asymptotes of the three functions are whenever the denominators are zero.