Talk:Tangent

Certainly the original was grotesquely incorrect. But the present one is distinctly inferior to the one that Axel Boldt wrote earlier. I fear that any good account of the matter will have to make clear not only a correct definition, but also why some of the inferior characterizations are inferior. Michael Hardy 18:30 28 May 2003 (UTC)

With the addition of the "vertical tangent" comment, this article's silliness continues. "Tangent" should first be defined in a context in which "slope" makes no sense, and only later set in the narrower context that refers to slopes. Unfortunately, I think this is being written by people whose knowledge of the subject comes only from calculus courses. Michael Hardy 20:06 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

And now I've reverted. It makes no sense to speak of slope except when there is a coordinate system, but "tangent" makes sense regardless of the choice of coordinate system. Admittedly, the article has room for improvement, but at least the silliness of writing about slope outside of the context of a choice of coordinate system has been expunged. Probably something about that, in its proper context, should be added. Michael Hardy 21:35 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)]

I should think you should either take the time to re-write the offending "silliness" or leave it there for somebody else to fix. Pizza Puzzle

Would User:Michael Hardy explain why he chose to delete:

• In mathematics, the word tangent has two distinct, but etymologically related meanings: one in geometry, and one in trigonometry.

Pizza Puzzle