tangent - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education
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tangent
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tangent
tan = a/b 		tan·gent  audio  (tnjnt) KEY 

ADJECTIVE:
  1. Making contact at a single point or along a line; touching but not intersecting.
  2. Irrelevant.
NOUN:
  1. A line, curve, or surface meeting another line, curve, or surface at a common point and sharing a common tangent line or tangent plane at that point.
  2. Abbr. tan Mathematics The trigonometric function of an acute angle in a right triangle that is the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle.
  3. A sudden digression or change of course: went off on a tangent during the courtroom argument.
  4. Music An upright pin in a keyboard instrument, especially in a clavichord, that rises to sound a string when a key is depressed and stops the string at a preset length to set the pitch.
ETYMOLOGY:
Latin (lnea) tangns, tangent-, touching (line), present participle of tangere, to touch; see tag- in Indo-European roots



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