[thechat] Tangent with a Curve

Lachlan Cannon luminosity at members.evolt.org
Sat May 4 03:59:00 CDT 2002


\aardvark\ said:
> just what are you building?
>
> anyway, you don\'t do it by hand... if you\'re a drafting monkey (and i
> used to be a damn fine one), you get yourself a french curve and a
> triangle -- at the very least... t-square should be a requirement, but
> if you\'re just playing...
>
> anyway, get some drafting gear, then you\'ll be able to do whatever you
> want (asymptotic curves, realistic perspective, whatever)...
>

Or work out the derivative of the point you want a tangent for, sub the
derivative of the point and the x and y co ords into y=mx + c, and draw your
line from that. Though since you can work out the derivative straight off,
one wonders why you'd need to draw the tangent line?

Lach





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