When two stones are thrown simultaneously into a pool of still water, ripples move outward in concentric circles. These circles intersect in points which form a curve known as the hyperbola.

it is the Dulles Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid. The hyperbolic paraboloid is a three-dimensional curve that is a hyperbola in one cross-section, and a parabola in another cross section.

Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capital building is elliptic. It was in this room that John Quincy Adams, while a member of the House of Representatives, discovered this acoustical phenomenon. He situated his desk at a focal point of the elliptical ceiling, easily eavesdropping on the private conversations of other House members located near the other focal point.