When.com Web Search

Search results

  1. Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
  2. Tangential and normal components - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangential_and_normal...

    Illustration of tangential and normal components of a vector to a surface. In mathematics, given a vector at a point on a curve, that vector can be decomposed uniquely as a sum of two vectors, one tangent to the curve, called the tangential component of the vector, and another one perpendicular to the curve, called the normal component of the vector.

  3. Tangent - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangent

    The equation of the tangent line in Cartesian ... and it follows that the equation of the normal line at (X, Y) is ... In mathematics, a tangent vector is a vector ...

  4. Method of normals - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_normals

    In calculus, the method of normals was a technique invented by Descartes for finding normal and tangent lines to curves. It represented one of the earliest methods for constructing tangents to curves. The method hinges on the observation that the radius of a circle is always normal to the circle itself. With this in mind Descartes would ...

  5. Normal (geometry) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_(geometry)

    In geometry, a normal is an object (e.g. a line, ray, or vector) that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, the normal line to a plane curve at a given point is the line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point. A normal vector of length one is called a unit normal vector.

  6. Subtangent - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtangent

    The distances shown are the ordinate (AP), tangent (TP), subtangent (TA), normal (PN), and subnormal (AN). The angle φ is the angle of inclination of the tangent line or the tangential angle. In geometry, the subtangent and related terms are certain line segments defined using the line tangent to a curve at a given point and the coordinate ...

  7. Frenet–Serret formulas - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenet–Serret_formulas

    The tangent, normal, and binormal unit vectors, often called T, N, and B, or collectively the Frenet–Serret frame (TNB frame or TNB basis), together form an orthonormal basis that spans, and are defined as follows: T is the unit vector tangent to the curve, pointing in the direction of motion.

  8. Envelope (mathematics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelope_(mathematics)

    A line is normal to γ at γ(t) if it passes through γ(t) and is perpendicular to the tangent vector to γ at γ(t). Let T denote the unit tangent vector to γ and let N denote the unit normal vector. Using a dot to denote the dot product, the generating family for the one-parameter family of normal lines is given by F : I × R 2 → R where

  9. Parabola - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabola

    In mathematics, a parabola is a plane ... The equation of the tangent at a point = ... the parabola is generalized by the rational normal curves, which have ...