Consider the red curve orthogonal to identical shifted blue parabolas.
Which one is it?
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The equations for parabolas are y = x + c o n s t , which are solution to a simple differential equation: y ′ = 1 / ( 2 y ) . The orthogonal curve will have negative reciprocal tangent slopes and so satisfies equation y ′ = − 2 y , which solutions are exponential functions.