tangent line
Curve's grazing contact
A tangent line touches a curve at exactly one point without crossing it there.
In calculus, the tangent line at a point represents the instantaneous rate of change—its slope equals the derivative at that point.
Draw the tangent line to find the slope of the curve.
The concept extends to circles, where the tangent is perpendicular to the radius at the point of contact.
- derivativeFunction's rate of change
- slopeAngled terrain or steepness
- functionPurpose or duty
- curveSmooth, angleless line
- approximationNear but inexact value
first derivative · geometry · calculus · differential calculus · instantaneous · graze · touching · just barely · limit · mathematics · linearization · graph · intersection · differential · asymptote · steepness · rate · Leibniz
- circlesfull circle, circle, radius, circumference, pie chart
- curvescurve, arc, curves, curls, curl
- linesparallel lines, intersecting lines, dotted, dashed, curved
- projective geometryprojective plane, duality, polarity, conic, configuration
- geometry termscircle, rectangle, side, square, triangle
- poolswimming pool, cue ball, object ball, pool table, pool cue
line, tangent, tangential, tangency, tangentially, tangents, cotangent, cotangents, tangent lines