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Secant line. In geometry, a secant is a line that intersects a curve at a minimum of two distinct points. [ 1] The word secant comes from the Latin word secare, meaning to cut. [ 2] In the case of a circle, a secant intersects the circle at exactly two points. A chord is the line segment determined by the two points, that is, the interval on ...
A simple two-point estimation is to compute the slope of a nearby secant line through the points (x, f(x)) and (x + h, f(x + h)). [1] Choosing a small number h, h represents a small change in x, and it can be either positive or negative. The slope of this line is (+) ().
In numerical analysis, the secant method is a root-finding algorithm that uses a succession of roots of secant lines to better approximate a root of a function f. The secant method can be thought of as a finite-difference approximation of Newton's method. However, the secant method predates Newton's method by over 3000 years.
An illustration of Newton's method. In numerical analysis, Newton's method, also known as the Newton–Raphson method, named after Isaac Newton and Joseph Raphson, is a root-finding algorithm which produces successively better approximations to the roots (or zeroes) of a real -valued function. The most basic version starts with a real-valued ...
At each point, the moving line is always tangent to the curve. Its slope is the derivative; green marks positive derivative, red marks negative derivative and black marks zero derivative. The point (x,y) = (0,1) where the tangent intersects the curve, is not a max, or a min, but is a point of inflection. (Note: the figure contains the incorrect ...
Arc length. When rectified, the curve gives a straight line segment with the same length as the curve's arc length. Arc length s of a logarithmic spiral as a function of its parameter θ. Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve . Determining the length of an irregular arc segment by approximating the arc segment ...
This name is justified by the mean value theorem, which states that for a differentiable function f, its derivative f ′ reaches its mean value at some point in the interval. [5] Geometrically, this difference quotient measures the slope of the secant line passing through the points with coordinates (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)). [10]
Tangent lines to circles. In Euclidean plane geometry, a tangent line to a circle is a line that touches the circle at exactly one point, never entering the circle's interior. Tangent lines to circles form the subject of several theorems, and play an important role in many geometrical constructions and proofs.