Tangent vs Unstable - What's the difference?
tangent | unstable |
(geometry) A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.
(trigonometry) In a right triangle, the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle. Symbols: tan, tg
A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.
*{{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne
, title=Well Tackled!
, chapter=1 * 2009 :
A small metal blade by which a clavichord produces sound.
(geometry) Touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point.
Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.
Having a strong tendency to change.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Fluctuating; not constant.
Fickle.
Unpredictable.
(chemistry) Readily decomposable.
(physics) Radioactive, especially with a short half-life.
As adjectives the difference between tangent and unstable
is that tangent is (geometry) touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point while unstable is having a strong tendency to change.As a noun tangent
is (geometry) a straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.tangent
English
(wikipedia tangent)Noun
(en noun)- I believe we went off onto a tangent when we started talking about monkeys on unicycles at his retirement party.
citation, passage=“Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent . “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”}}
Stuart Heritage], [http://www.hecklerspray.com/ Hecklerspray] , Friday the 22nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “[http://www.hecklerspray.com/jon-kate-latest-people-you-dont-know-do-crap-you-dont-care-about/200934378.php Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”
- Jon & Kate Plus 8'' is a show based on two facts: (1)''' Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and '''(2)''' the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying ' tangent .
Derived terms
* arctangent * cotangent * hyberbolic tangentAdjective
(-)See also
* cosine * non sequitur * sine * trigonometry ----unstable
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Yesterday’s fuel, passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.