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The graph of a function with a horizontal (y = 0), vertical (x = 0), and oblique asymptote (purple line, given by y = 2x) A curve intersecting an asymptote infinitely many times In analytic geometry , an asymptote ( / ˈ æ s ɪ m p t oʊ t / ) of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or ...
The tangent line to a point on a differentiable curve can also be thought of as a tangent line approximation, the graph of the affine function that best approximates the original function at the given point. [3] Similarly, the tangent plane to a surface at a given point is the plane that "just touches" the
Stationary points are easy to visualize on the graph of a function of one variable: they correspond to the points on the graph where the tangent is horizontal (i.e., parallel to the x-axis). For a function of two variables, they correspond to the points on the graph where the tangent plane is parallel to the xy plane.
The graph of f is a concave up parabola, the critical point is the abscissa of the vertex, where the tangent line is horizontal, and the critical value is the ordinate of the vertex and may be represented by the intersection of this tangent line and the y-axis.
The curve was first proposed and studied by René Descartes in 1638. [1] Its claim to fame lies in an incident in the development of calculus.Descartes challenged Pierre de Fermat to find the tangent line to the curve at an arbitrary point since Fermat had recently discovered a method for finding tangent lines.
An extremely special case of this is the following: if a differentiable function from reals to the reals has nonzero derivative at a zero of the function, then the zero is simple, i.e. it the graph is transverse to the x-axis at that zero; a zero derivative would mean a horizontal tangent to the curve, which would agree with the tangent space ...
An example of a stationary point of inflection is the point (0, 0) on the graph of y = x 3. The tangent is the x-axis, which cuts the graph at this point. An example of a non-stationary point of inflection is the point (0, 0) on the graph of y = x 3 + ax, for any nonzero a. The tangent at the origin is the line y = ax, which cuts the graph at ...
A tangent line t to a circle C intersects the circle at a single point T. For comparison, secant lines intersect a circle at two points, whereas another line may not intersect a circle at all. This property of tangent lines is preserved under many geometrical transformations, such as scalings, rotation, translations, inversions, and map ...