What is meant by a tangent to a graph?
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What is meant by a tangent to a graph?
A tangent is a line that touches a curve at a point (and does not cross it).
What is meant by the gradient of a curve at a point?
The gradient of a curve at a point is defined to be the same as the gradient of the tangent to the curve at that point.
True or False?
Drawing a tangent line to a curve at a point will always give the exact gradient of the curve at that point.
False.
Drawing a tangent line to a curve at a point will not always give the exact gradient of the curve at that point.
A tangent line is drawn by eye so it will give an estimate of the gradient.
To find the exact gradient, you need to use differentiation.