AI engineering glossary · Calculus optimisation
What is tangent line?
Tangent line: The straight line that just touches a curve at a single point and has the same slope as the curve there. Its slope equals the derivative at that point. It gives the best straight-line approximation of the function near that point.
Tangent line: an example
For f(x) = x^2 at x = 3, the tangent line is y = 6x - 9, which touches the curve at (3, 9) with slope 6.
Related terms
More Calculus optimisation terms
- Taylor series
- Total derivative
- Trust region method
- Unconstrained optimisation
- Variance reduction
- Vector-Jacobian product
- Warm restarts
- AdaGrad
Where you learn it
Tangent line is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.