Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Define a secant to a curve by two points, P and Q, with P fixed and Q variable. As Q approaches P along the curve, if the slope of the secant approaches a limit value, then that limit defines the slope of the tangent line at P. [1] The secant lines PQ are the approximations to the tangent line.
Here, the poles are the numbers of the form (+) for the tangent and the secant, or for the cotangent and the cosecant, where k is an arbitrary integer. Recurrences relations may also be computed for the coefficients of the Taylor series of the other trigonometric functions.
3.3 Secants and cosecants of sums. 3.4 Ptolemy's theorem. ... Serving a purpose similar to that of the Chebyshev method, for the tangent we can write: ...
The cosine, cotangent, and cosecant are so named because they are respectively the sine, tangent, and secant of the complementary angle abbreviated to "co-". [32] With these functions, one can answer virtually all questions about arbitrary triangles by using the law of sines and the law of cosines. [33]
Specifically, they are the inverses of the sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant functions, [4] and are used to obtain an angle from any of the angle's trigonometric ratios. Inverse trigonometric functions are widely used in engineering , navigation , physics , and geometry .
A tangent, a chord, and a secant to a circle. The intuitive notion that a tangent line "touches" a curve can be made more explicit by considering the sequence of straight lines (secant lines) passing through two points, A and B, those that lie on the function curve. The tangent at A is the limit when point B approximates or tends to A. The ...
The tangent-secant theorem can be proven using similar triangles (see graphic). Like the intersecting chords theorem and the intersecting secants theorem, the tangent-secant theorem represents one of the three basic cases of a more general theorem about two intersecting lines and a circle, namely, the power of point theorem.
In this way, this trigonometric identity involving the tangent and the secant follows from the Pythagorean theorem. The angle opposite the leg of length 1 (this angle can be labeled φ = π/2 − θ) has cotangent equal to the length of the other leg, and cosecant equal to the length of the hypotenuse. In that way, this trigonometric identity ...