TANGENTS AND NORMALS

Chapter 9D

TANGENTS AND NORMALS

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the derivative f'(x) is actually the gradient function.

This means that the value of the gradient at any particular point on a curve is equal to the numerical value of the derivative at that point.

recall that the equation of a straight line is given by y − y1 = m(x − x1) where (x1, y1) is the point P, above, and m is the gradient.

EXAMPLE 1

EXAMPLE 2