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tangent

 
Dictionary: tan·gent   (tăn'jənt) pronunciation
tangent
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tangent

tan θ=
(Academy Artworks)
adj.
  1. Making contact at a single point or along a line; touching but not intersecting.
  2. Irrelevant.
n.
  1. A line, curve, or surface meeting another line, curve, or surface at a common point and sharing a common tangent line or tangent plane at that point.
  2. (Abbr. tan) Mathematics. The trigonometric function of an acute angle in a right triangle that is the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle.
  3. A sudden digression or change of course: went off on a tangent during the courtroom argument.
  4. Music. An upright pin in a keyboard instrument, especially in a clavichord, that rises to sound a string when a key is depressed and stops the string at a preset length to set the pitch.

[Latin (līnea) tangēns, tangent-, touching (line), present participle of tangere, to touch.]


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A term describing a relationship of two figures (usually of the same dimension) in the neighborhood of a common point. The figures are tangent at a point P if they touch at P but do not intersect in a sufficiently small neighborhood of P. To be more precise, if P denotes a point of a curve C (see illustration), a line L is a tangent to C at P provided L is the limit of lines joining P to a variable point Q of C, as Q approaches P along C (that is, for Q sufficiently close to P, the line PQ is arbitrarily close to L).

Line <i>L</i> tangent to curve <i>C</i> at <i>P</i>.
Line L tangent to curve C at P.


Architecture: tangent
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Of lines, curves, and surfaces: meeting at a single point and having, at that point, the same direction.


A line that touches a curve at a single point but does not cross the curve. The tangent of a circle at any point is at right angles to the radius of the circle at that point.

 
tangent, in mathematics.

1 In geometry, the tangent to a circle or sphere is a straight line that intersects the circle or sphere in one and only one point. For other curves and surfaces the tangent line at a given point P is defined as the limiting position, if such a limit exists, of a secant line through P and another point P′ on the curve or surface as P′ is allowed to approach P. The tangent plane to a surface at a point is the plane in which every line in the plane that passes through the point is a tangent line to the surface at that point. The study of tangent lines and planes usually requires the concepts of the calculus and is included within the scope of differential geometry.

2 A trigonometric function. See trigonometry.


Word Tutor: tangent
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Diverging from an original purpose or course; or meeting a curve or surface in a single point if a sufficiently small interval is considered.

pronunciation The author took a tangent from her prepared reading.

Wikipedia: Tangent (tangent piano)
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A tangent, when referred to in the context of the action of a tangent piano refers to the small slip of wood similar in shape to a harpsichord jack or similar to an unleathered fortepiano hammer which strikes the string to produce sound. It is similar to the tangent of a clavichord only in the sense that they both are driven ultimately by the player's finger to strike the string to initiate sound. In the clavichord, the tangent remains in contact with the string to keep the note sounding, while in the tangent piano, the tangent immediately rebounds from the string so that the string is allowed to vibrate freely (that is, it has an escapement).


Translations: Tangent
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - tangent, tangens
adj. - tangent-, tangerende, berørende

idioms:

  • at a tangent    følge en (tanke)bane

Nederlands (Dutch)
raaklijn, rakend aan

Français (French)
n. - tangente
adj. - tangent

idioms:

  • at a tangent    dévier, faire une digression

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tangens, Tangente
adj. - (sich) berührend

idioms:

  • at a tangent    mit plötzlich geändertem Kurs, weit abgekommen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (μαθημ.) εφαπτομένη (γωνίας)
adj. - εφαπτόμενος

idioms:

  • at a tangent    για διαφορετικό θέμα

Italiano (Italian)
tangente

idioms:

  • at a tangent    per la tangente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - tangente (f), tangente (f) trigonométrica (Mat.)
adj. - tangente

idioms:

  • at a tangent    sair pela tangente, tangencial

Русский (Russian)
(мат.) тангент, касательная

idioms:

  • at a tangent    отклонение от темы

Español (Spanish)
n. - tangente
adj. - tangente

idioms:

  • at a tangent    salirse por la tangente

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tangent (geom. matem.)
adj. - tangerande, tangerings-, berörings-

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
切线, 正切, 接触的, 相切的, 切线的

idioms:

  • at a tangent    离题, 偏离原来途径

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 切線, 正切
adj. - 接觸的, 相切的, 切線的

idioms:

  • at a tangent    離題, 偏離原來途徑

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 접선, 탄젠트, 직선구간
adj. - ~에 접한

idioms:

  • at a tangent    갑자기 옆길로 새다, (방침을) 느닷없이 바꾸다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 接線, 正接, 脱線
adj. - 接する, 接線の

idioms:

  • at a tangent    急転換する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ظل ألزاويه (صفه) خارج ألزاويه, مماس,‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משיק - קו הנוגע בקו אחר בנקודה אחת, טנגנס - היחס בין הניצב שמול הזווית לניצב שליד הזווית במשולש ישר-זווית‬
adj. - ‮נוגע, של משיק‬


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Math
mathworld.wolfram.com
 
 
 

 

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