Point of Tangency

Pronunciation: /pɔɪnt ʌv ˈtæn.dʒən.si/ Explain

Click on the red point and drag it to change the figure. Can there be more than one point of tangency for a tangent line to a circle? Why? Manipulative 1 - Point of Tangency Created with GeoGebra.

A point of tangency is the point where a tangent line touches an object.

References

1. McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, point of tangency. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 140. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book

Cite this article as:

McAdams, David E. Point of Tangency. 12/21/2018. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. https://www.allmathwords.org/en/p/pointoftangency.html.

Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem LLC and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revision History

12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (McAdams, David E.)
12/1/2018: Removed broken links, updated license, implemented new markup, updated geogebra app. (McAdams, David E.)
5/5/2010: Initial version. (McAdams, David E.)