have you ever used parabolas after college? because my math teacher keeps telling us they're important but I don't think it's important to be able to draw a U on a graph
if you draw a U freehand it's probably not going to be an actual parabola. actual parabolae need the right calculations, but you could probably get a computer to do it. in my line of work, the parabola would certainly come into play when trying to properly depict a bouncing ball, or other depictions of gravity. many times i have wished to be able to correctly do parabolic motion but couldn't