Secant is a term in mathematics derived from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''secare'' ("to cut"). It may refer to:
* a
secant line
In geometry, a secant is a line (geometry), line that intersects a curve at a minimum of two distinct Point (geometry), points..
The word ''secant'' comes from the Latin word ''secare'', meaning ''to cut''. In the case of a circle, a secant inter ...
, in geometry
* the
secant variety In algebraic geometry, the secant variety \operatorname(V), or the variety of chords, of a projective variety V \subset \mathbb^r is the Zariski closure of the union of all secant lines (chords) to ''V'' in \mathbb^r:
:\operatorname(V) = \bigcup_ \o ...
, in algebraic geometry
*
secant (trigonometry) (Latin: secans), the multiplicative inverse (or reciprocal) trigonometric function of the cosine
* the
secant method, a root-finding algorithm in numerical analysis, based on secant lines to graphs of functions
* a
secant ogive in nose cone design
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sr:Секанс