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Tangent line at (a, f(a)) In mathematics, a linear approximation is an approximation of a general function using a linear function (more precisely, an affine function). They are widely used in the method of finite differences to produce first order methods for solving or approximating solutions to equations.
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 surface at that point.
This x-intercept will typically be a better approximation to the original function's root than the first guess, and the method can be iterated. x n+1 is a better approximation than x n for the root x of the function f (blue curve) If the tangent line to the curve f(x) at x = x n intercepts the x-axis at x n+1 then the slope is
By doing the above step, we have found the slope of the line that is tangent to the solution curve at the point (,). Recall that the slope is defined as the change in y {\displaystyle y} divided by the change in t {\displaystyle t} , or Δ y Δ t {\textstyle {\frac {\Delta y}{\Delta t}}} .
The secant lines PQ are the approximations to the tangent line. In calculus, this idea is the geometric definition of the derivative. The tangent line at point P is a secant line of the curve. A tangent line to a curve at a point P may be a secant line to that curve if it intersects the curve in at least one point other than P.
While the concept of local linearity applies the most to points arbitrarily close to =, those relatively close work relatively well for linear approximations. The slope should be, most accurately, the slope of the tangent line at =. An approximation of f(x) = x 2 at (x, f(x))
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A much better estimate can be obtained by a piece-wise linear approximation: multiple line segments, each approximating some subarc of the original. The more line segments used, the better the approximation. The most common way is to use tangent lines; the critical choices are how to divide the arc and where to place the tangent points.