The word tangent comes from Latin tangens meaning "touching", since the line touches the circle of unit radius, whereas secant stems from Latin secans—"cutting"—since the line cuts the circle. [50]

Tangent. Tangent, written as tan⁡(θ), is one of the six fundamental trigonometric functions.. Tangent definition. Tangent, like other trigonometric functions, is typically defined in terms of right triangles and in terms of the unit circle.The right-angled triangle definition of trigonometric functions is most often how they are introduced, followed by their definitions in terms of the unit ...

Exercise. Try this paper-based exercise where you can calculate the sine function for all angles from 0° to 360°, and then graph the result. It will help you to understand these relativelysimple functions. You can also see Graphs of Sine, Cosine and Tangent.. And play with a spring that makes a sine wave.. Less Common Functions. To complete the picture, there are 3 other …

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. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points on the curve.

The tangent of an angle is the ratio of the length of the opposite side to the length of the adjacent side: so called because it can be represented as a line segment tangent to the circle, that is the line that touches the circle, from Latin linea tangens or touching line.

Feb 14, 2025 · Tangent, one of the six trigonometric functions, which, in a right triangle ABC, for an angle A, istan A = length of side opposite angle A length of side adjacent to angle A .The other five trigonometric functions are sine (sin), cosine (cos), secant (sec), cosecant (csc), and cotangent (cot). From

Tangent Function. The tangent function is one of the basic trigonometric functions and is quite a commonly used function in trigonometry. The tangent function can be expressed as the ratio of the sine function and cosine function. In a right-angled triangle, the formula for the tangent function is expressed as the ratio of the perpendicular and base of the triangle.

Jan 10, 2025 · The word “tangent” comes from “tangens”, meaning touching or extending (the line that touches the circle at one point). The term “tangent” referring to an angle was first used by the Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in 1583.

Inverse tangent function. The arctangent of x is defined as the inverse tangent function of x when x is real (x ∈ℝ).. When the tangent of y is equal to x: tan y = x. Then the arctangent of x is equal to the inverse tangent function of x, which is equal to y: