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Secant line. In geometry, a secant is a line that intersects a curve at a minimum of two distinct points. [1] The word secant comes from the Latin word secare, meaning to cut. [2] In the case of a circle, a secant intersects the circle at exactly two points. A chord is the line segment determined by the two points, that is, the interval on the ...
Secant method. In numerical analysis, the secant method is a root-finding algorithm that uses a succession of roots of secant lines to better approximate a root of a function f. The secant method can be thought of as a finite-difference approximation of Newton's method. However, the secant method predates Newton's method by over 3000 years.
The trigonometric function are periodic functions, and their primitive period is 2π for the sine and the cosine, and π for the tangent, which is increasing in each open interval (π/2 + kπ, π/2 + (k + 1)π). At each end point of these intervals, the tangent function has a vertical asymptote .
The integral of the secant function was historically one of the first integrals of its type ever evaluated, before most of the development of integral calculus. It is important because it is the vertical coordinate of the Mercator projection, used for marine navigation with constant compass bearing .
Next to the intersecting chords theorem and the tangent-secant theorem, the intersecting secants theorem represents one of the three basic cases of a more general theorem about two intersecting lines and a circle - the power of point theorem. References. S. Gottwald: The VNR Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics.
A right triangle with sides relative to an angle at the point. Inverse trigonometric functions are useful when trying to determine the remaining two angles of a right triangle when the lengths of the sides of the triangle are known. Recalling the right-triangle definitions of sine and cosine, it follows that.
Tangent lines to circles. 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.
If too large, the calculation of the slope of the secant line will be more accurately calculated, but the estimate of the slope of the tangent by using the secant could be worse. [6] For basic central differences, the optimal step is the cube-root of machine epsilon . [7]