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The method hinges on the observation that the radius of a circle is always normal to the circle itself. With this in mind Descartes would construct a circle that was tangent to a given curve. He could then use the radius at the point of intersection to find the slope of a normal line, and from this one can easily find the slope of a tangent line.
Illustration of tangential and normal components of a vector to a surface. In mathematics, given a vector at a point on a curve, that vector can be decomposed uniquely as a sum of two vectors, one tangent to the curve, called the tangential component of the vector, and another one perpendicular to the curve, called the normal component of the vector.
The distances shown are the ordinate (AP), tangent (TP), subtangent (TA), normal (PN), and subnormal (AN). The angle φ is the angle of inclination of the tangent line or the tangential angle. In geometry, the subtangent and related terms are certain line segments defined using the line tangent to a curve at a given point and the coordinate ...
The line perpendicular to the tangent line to a curve at the point of tangency is called the normal line to the curve at that point. The slopes of perpendicular lines have product −1, so if the equation of the curve is y = f(x) then slope of the normal line is /
In geometry, a normal is an object (e.g. a line, ray, or vector) that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, the normal line to a plane curve at a given point is the line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point. A normal vector of length one is called a unit normal vector.
Let Xx + Yy + Zz = 0 be the equation of a line, with (X, Y, Z) being designated its line coordinates in a dual projective plane. The condition that the line is tangent to the curve can be expressed in the form F(X, Y, Z) = 0 which is the tangential equation of the curve. At a point (p, q, r) on the curve, the tangent is given by
An osculating curve from a given family of curves is a curve that has the highest possible order of contact with a given curve at a given point; for instance a tangent line is an osculating curve from the family of lines, and has first-order contact with the given curve; an osculating circle is an osculating curve from the family of circles ...
The curve of intersection of the plane and the surface has zero curvature at that point. An asymptotic curve is a curve such that, at each point, the plane tangent to the surface is an osculating plane of the curve.