Talk:Tangent

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The desinition of "tangent line" is incorrect. Who will replace it?
S.

Certainly the original was grotesquely incorrect. But the present one is distinctly inferior to the one that Axel Boldt wrote earlier. I fear that any good account of the matter will have to make clear not only a correct definition, but also why some of the inferior characterizations are inferior. Michael Hardy 18:30 28 May 2003 (UTC)

With the addition of the "vertical tangent" comment, this article's silliness continues. "Tangent" should first be defined in a context in which "slope" makes no sense, and only later set in the narrower context that refers to slopes. Unfortunately, I think this is being written by people whose knowledge of the subject comes only from calculus courses. Michael Hardy 20:06 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

And now I've reverted. It makes no sense to speak of slope except when there is a coordinate system, but "tangent" makes sense regardless of the choice of coordinate system. Admittedly, the article has room for improvement, but at least the silliness of writing about slope outside of the context of a choice of coordinate system has been expunged. Probably something about that, in its proper context, should be added. Michael Hardy 21:35 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)]

I should think you should either take the time to re-write the offending "silliness" or leave it there for somebody else to fix. Pizza Puzzle

Would User:Michael Hardy explain why he chose to delete:

Pizza Puzzle

Contents

[edit] Related meaning

To "go off on a tangent" means to go off topic, likely derived from the geometric meaning of a tangent.

I removed this piece of folk etymology because Wikipedia is not a dictionary.
—Herbee 21:10, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect to Trig function?

Should this page be redirected to the trigonometric function page just like the sine and cosine pages?

Sure it should be redirected. Both meanings are placed on one page just because the name is identical. In many languages (eg. in Polish) there are two different words, not relating each other. It came from Latin: "tango" means "to touch". If we continue such practices, someone will eventually place here information about tango dance... 83.23.193.214 11:12, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

I think "tango" means "I touch" and "tangere" means "to touch". Michael Hardy 21:12, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
I concur, tangere means to touch, and is a form of the verb tango.

The quality of this article has grown progressively worse. Also note that semicolons are not commas.

[edit] Tangent Line Problem

Um, I noticed that there was not an article nor a redirect at Tangent line problem, so I created a redirect to here from there. Seeing as how this article is most relevant. I was kind of surprised there was no article about that particular problem... --Comrade4·2 02:59, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Quotation

"And I dare say that this is not only the most useful and general [concept] in geometry, that I know, but even that I ever desire to know." Descartes (1637)"

this sentence makes no actual sense --212.219.116.214 16:05, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

  • This quote should be removed until it can be verified. I can't find it elsewhere on the internet. Can whoever added provide a reference? It's also grammatically incorrect, no? Tnek46 16:42, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
I tried to find the original (French or latin) citation but couldn't find it. If someone finds it, I might be able to make a better translation--Yitscar (talk) 10:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
A facsimile of the original French is in ISBN 0486600688, but I can't get it online, and I couldn't translate it anyway. I added two cites to the translated quote. Tom Harrison Talk 13:35, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sections

Shouldn't the section derivative, integral, and power series be subsections of the trigonometry sections since they refer to that particular concept? Ricardo sandoval 20:44, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

No, whereas they can be interpreted to be somehow related to tangent lines, it is mostly related to limits.--A 22:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Divorce

I have removed the obsolete section about the trigonometric function tangent — the topic is much better covered at the trigonometric functions and doesn't have much in common with the tangents in geometry. This was discussed at WT:WPM and didn't raise objections. Unfortunately, no one came forward willing to fix the incoming links (a program like AWB should make it a very straighforward even if tedious task), so I'd like to repeat the request here.

The article requires major expansion, it presently contains little beyond the definition and a description of the approach to tangent lines based on calculus. Arcfrk (talk) 05:50, 1 March 2008 (UTC)