The document describes how to find the equation of a parabola given a square with an area of 18 units squared. It explains that the side length is the square root of 18, which is 3 units. Drawing a diagonal splits the square into two triangles, and using the Pythagorean theorem on one finds the diagonal length is also 3 units. Tilting the square identifies the vertices of the parabola as (3,3) and (-3,3), allowing one to be substituted into the standard parabola equation to find the value of a as 1/3.