tangent line

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

However, if you suddenly cut the string, the ball will fly off along that tangent line; in the same way, a baseball pitcher’s arm travels in an arc as he throws, but as soon as he lets go, the ball flies off on the tangent.

From Literature

As another example, if you want to find out where a ball will come to rest at the bottom of a hill, you look for a point where the tangent line is horizontal.

From Literature

The steepness of the tangent line—its slope—has some important properties in physics: for instance, if you’ve got a curve that represents the position of, say, a bicycle, then the slope of the tangent line to that curve at any given point tells you how fast that bicycle is going when it reaches that spot.

From Literature

To draw a tangent line at any given point, it’s best to make a guess.

From Literature

The line you get isn’t exactly the tangent line, but if the curve isn’t too bumpy, the two lines will be pretty close.

From Literature