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As the point q approaches p, which corresponds to making h smaller and smaller, the difference quotient should approach a certain limiting value k, which is the slope of the tangent line at the point p. If k is known, the equation of the tangent line can be found in the point-slope form: = ().
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. This was discovered about the same time as Fermat's method of adequality.
The tangent line t and the tangent point T have a conjugate relationship to one another, which has been generalized into the idea of pole points and polar lines. The same reciprocal relation exists between a point P outside the circle and the secant line joining its two points of tangency.
Solutions to a slope field are functions drawn as solid curves. A slope field shows the slope of a differential equation at certain vertical and horizontal intervals on the x-y plane, and can be used to determine the approximate tangent slope at a point on a curve, where the curve is some solution to the differential equation.
The graph of the linear approximation is the tangent line of the graph = at the point (, ()). The derivative slope f ′ ( c ) {\displaystyle f\,'(c)} generally varies with the point c . Linear functions can be characterized as the only real functions whose derivative is constant: if f ′ ( x ) = a {\displaystyle f\,'(x)=a} for all x , then f ...
Slope illustrated for y = (3/2)x − 1.Click on to enlarge Slope of a line in coordinates system, from f(x) = −12x + 2 to f(x) = 12x + 2. The slope of a line in the plane containing the x and y axes is generally represented by the letter m, [5] and is defined as the change in the y coordinate divided by the corresponding change in the x coordinate, between two distinct points on the line.
The point of osculation is also called the double cusp. Contact is a geometric notion; it can be defined algebraically as a valuation. One speaks also of curves and geometric objects having k-th order contact at a point: this is also called osculation (i.e. kissing), generalising the property of being tangent. (Here the derivatives are ...
Suppose that f is differentiable at (,), with derivative K, and assume without loss of generality that >, so the tangent line at has positive slope (is increasing). Then there is a neighborhood of x 0 {\displaystyle x_{0}} on which the secant lines through x 0 {\displaystyle x_{0}} all have positive slope, and thus to the right of x 0 ...