Talk:Secant

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The problem is that the page as now written deals both with secant lines and with trigonometric secants. And it seems a good idea to leave it that way unless a lot of new material is added, since it makes it clear why the same term is used for both. Michael Hardy 01:22, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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Not good to redefine secant as has just been done. The reason being that a secant line of a curve may well intersect the curve in a third point (or more). Two distinct points on a curve define a secant line.

Charles Matthews 14:05 2 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

So if the name of the secant line comes from the Latin "to cut", where does the name of the secant function come from? -- SS 18:20, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The same place. These two concepts of secant are related; I've now added an explanation to this article. Michael Hardy 21:59, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks!