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Equation of A Tangent and Normal To A Curve

The document discusses the equations of tangents and normals to curves. It defines a tangent as a straight line that touches a curve at one point, and a normal as a straight line perpendicular to the tangent at a given point. To find the tangent, you take the derivative of the function f(x) to get the gradient function f'(x), substitute the x-value of the point into f'(x) to get the gradient, and use that gradient to write the equation of the tangent line. To find the normal, you take the tangent and make the gradients perpendicular by applying the equation m1m2=-1, where m1 is the gradient of the tangent and m2 is the gradient of the normal.

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Paully Fireberry Nguyen
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125 views1 page

Equation of A Tangent and Normal To A Curve

The document discusses the equations of tangents and normals to curves. It defines a tangent as a straight line that touches a curve at one point, and a normal as a straight line perpendicular to the tangent at a given point. To find the tangent, you take the derivative of the function f(x) to get the gradient function f'(x), substitute the x-value of the point into f'(x) to get the gradient, and use that gradient to write the equation of the tangent line. To find the normal, you take the tangent and make the gradients perpendicular by applying the equation m1m2=-1, where m1 is the gradient of the tangent and m2 is the gradient of the normal.

Uploaded by

Paully Fireberry Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Equation of a tangent and normal to a curve

 is the tangent of the curve and  is the


normal of the curve.

 The tangent is a straight line that touches the


curve at one point.

 The normal is a straight line that is perpendicular


1 2 to the tangent at a point.

 When it is a straight line it is easy to measure gradient. However when


curves such as the parabola are introduced, gradients constantly change

 Therefore there are many gradients at any given point

 The point on a parabola (1,1) will have a different gradient to point ( 2,1)
on a parabola.

 To make this easier we use a gradient function which will give us the
gradient at any point

 The gradient function is given by differentiating f (x) which results in


f ' ( x)

 To find the gradient the x value of the point must be substituted in the
gradient function f ' ( x )

 The gradient found is a straight line touching the original function. This
straight line needs to be expressed in a form relevant to the question:
 y  y1  m( x  x1 ) or y  mx  b or ax  by  c  0

 This is the “polished” answer if you were told to find the tangent.

 The normal is the same as tangent, except it is perpendicular (90º) to the


tangent.

 Here we apply m1m2  1 where m1 is the gradient from the tangent and
m2 is the one of this perpendicular line (the normal).

To find the tangent you need two points ( x, y )

1 of 1

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