tangent

脱線、余談

会話を本来の話題からそらす別の話題。

やさしい英語で： A new subject that takes a conversation away from its main subject.

• Sorry, I went off on a tangent.
• Her question sent the discussion off on a tangent.
• The speaker's tangents made the lecture hard to follow.

使い方： go off on a tangent (He went off on a tangent about his school days.)

類義語： digression

よく使う表現： on a tangent, off on a tangent

接線

曲線に一点で触れ、その点では曲線を横切らない直線。

やさしい英語で： A straight line that touches a curved line at one point without passing across it there.

• Draw a tangent here.
• The tangent touches the circle at point A.
• We calculated the slopes of three tangents.

使い方： tangent to something (Draw a tangent to the circle at this point.)

よく使う表現： draw a tangent, tangent to something

正接、タンジェント

角の正弦を余弦で割った値。直角三角形では対辺と隣の直角辺の比。

やさしい英語で： An angle's sine divided by its cosine; in a right triangle, the opposite side divided by the adjacent side.

• Calculate the tangent of this angle.
• The tangent of forty-five degrees is one.
• We used a calculator to find the tangent.

使い方： tangent of an angle (Find the tangent of this angle.)

よく使う表現： tangent of something, calculate the tangent

直線状の

特に道路や線路が、左右に曲がらずまっすぐ延びている。

やさしい英語で： Straight, without a curve to either side, especially when describing a road or railway.

• The train reached tangent track.
• This tangent section runs beside the river.
• Engineers inspected the tangent stretches of the railway.

類義語： straight

反対語： curved

よく使う表現： tangent track, tangent section, tangent alignment