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.
The x-intercepts of parabolas can be obtained from their quadratic equations in intercept forms as follows: It is also very easy to get the equation of the axis of symmetry of a parabola from the intercept form of a quadratic equation. The axis of symmetry can be calculated with the help of the following formula: