Tangent

In mathematics, the word "tangent" has two distinct, but etymologically related meanings: one in geometry, and one in trigonometry.

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In plane geometry, a straight line is tangent to a curve, at some point, if both line and curve pass through the point with the same direction; such a line is the best straight-line approximation to the curve at that point. The curve, at point P, has the same slope as a tangent passing through P. The slope of a tangent line can be approximated by a secant line. It is a mistake to think of tangents as lines which intersect a curve at only one single point. There are tangents which intersect curves at several points (as in the following example), and there are non-tangential lines which intersect curves at only one single point. (Note that in the important case of a circle, however, the tangent line will intersect the curve at only one point.)

Etymologically: REDIRECT Etymology...

Geometry: Geometry (Greek Γεωμετρια, geo = earth, metria = measure) arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. It was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers. In modern times, geometric c...

Trigonometry: Trigonometry (from the Greek trigonon = three angles and metro = measure) is a branch of mathematics dealing with angles, triangles and trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine and tangent. It has some relationship to geometry, though there is disagreement on exactly what that relationship is; f...