tangent

• adj. 切线的，相切的；接触的；离题的
• n. [数] 切线，[数] 正切
• n. (Tangent)人名；(瑞典)坦根特

来自拉丁语 tangere,接触，触摸，来自 PIE*tag,接触，触摸，安排，词源同 integer,contact.后 用于数学术语指正切，切线。

tangent (adj.)

1590s, "meeting at a point without intersecting," from Latin tangentem (nominative tangens), present participle of tangere "to touch," from PIE root *tag- "to touch, to handle; border on; taste, partake of; strike, hit;" figuratively "affect, impress; trick, cheat; mention, speak of" (cognates: Latin tactus "touch;" Greek tassein "to arrange," tetagon "having seized;" Old English þaccian "stroke, strike gently"). First used by Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in "Geomietria Rotundi" (1583). Extended sense of "slightly connected with a subject" is first recorded 1825. Related: Tangence; tangency.

tangent (n.)

1590s as a geometric function, from tangent (adj.). From 1650s as "a tangent line." Figurative use of off on a tangent is from 1771.

1. The conversation went off at a tangent.

交谈突然偏离了正题。

来自柯林斯例句

2. The graph of a concave function is always below its tangent.

一个凹函数的图象总在它的切线的下方.

来自辞典例句

3. The tangent may be used to find the direction.

这方向也可用正切求得.

来自辞典例句

4. For? 0 we naturally get a circle; for? 0 we obtain two tangent circles.

对? 0我们当然得到一个圆; 对? 0得到两个相切的圆.

来自辞典例句

5. It's not easy to follow her thought because she's always going off at a tangent.

要跟上她的思路并非易事,因为她老是突然扯到题外去.

来自辞典例句