Question

I have understood a casual definition of tangent lines, but I don't understand anything further.

How do I find a tangent line given a function and a point?

Answer 1

A proper definition of a tangent line will involve calculus. A tangent line is basically the limit of a sequence of secant lines, and only exists if the function is differentiable at that point.

Answer 2

Actually, I am on Paul's Online Notes( http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu) and the first thing it starts with in Calculus is Tangent Lines.

Answer 3

The first concept listed is 'Limits', but I have 'Rates of Change and Tangent Lines' as the first subtopic.

Answer 4

As for S.O.S Math, that site was a little too advanced for me.

Answer 5

Yeah. Paul starts with tangent lines to give you an intuition, but the way he defines them is extremely hand-wavy and non-rigorous. To get a proper definition you'll need to learn more about limits first. You can still learn about tangent lines with the hand-wavy definition, just keep in mind that it isn't rigorous.