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Tangent to a curve. The red line is tangential to the curve at the point marked by a red dot. Tangent plane to a sphere. In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is, intuitively, the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point.
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.
In geometry, the tangential angle of a curve in the Cartesian plane, at a specific point, is the angle between the tangent line to the curve at the given point and the x-axis. [1] (Some authors define the angle as the deviation from the direction of the curve at some fixed starting point.
The tangent space may then be defined as the dual space of /. While this definition is the most abstract, it is also the one that is most easily transferable to other settings, for instance, to the varieties considered in algebraic geometry.
The tangent line through a point P on the circle is perpendicular to the diameter passing through P. If P = (x 1, y 1) and the circle has centre (a, b) and radius r, then the tangent line is perpendicular to the line from (a, b) to (x 1, y 1), so it has the form (x 1 − a)x + (y 1 – b)y = c.
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.
In geometry, tangent circles (also known as kissing circles) are circles in a common plane that intersect in a single point. There are two types of tangency : internal and external. Many problems and constructions in geometry are related to tangent circles; such problems often have real-life applications such as trilateration and maximizing the ...
In geometry, an envelope of a planar family of curves is a curve that is tangent to each member of the family at some point, and these points of tangency together form the whole envelope. Classically, a point on the envelope can be thought of as the intersection of two " infinitesimally adjacent" curves, meaning the limit of intersections of ...