Tangent line approximation in the context of "Tangent"

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⭐ Core Definition: Tangent line approximation

In mathematics, a linear approximation is an approximation of a general function using a linear function (more precisely, an affine function). They are widely used in the method of finite differences to produce first order methods for solving or approximating solutions to equations.

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👉 Tangent line approximation in the context of Tangent

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. More precisely, a straight line is tangent to the curve y = f(x) at a point x = c if the line passes through the point (c, f(c)) on the curve and has slope f'(c), where f' is the derivative of f. A similar definition applies to space curves and curves in n-dimensional Euclidean space.

The point where the tangent line and the curve meet or intersect is called the point of tangency. The tangent line is said to be "going in the same direction" as the curve, and is thus the best straight-line approximation to the curve at that point.The tangent line to a point on a differentiable curve can also be thought of as a tangent line approximation, the graph of the affine function that best approximates the original function at the given point.

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