Secants and Tangents

A line that intersects a circle in two points of a circle is called a secant.  A secant is like an "extended chord."

A line that touches a circle at only one point is called a tangent, and the point is called the "point of tangency."

Rays and segments are also said to be tangent to a circle if they are part of a tangent line.

Two circles are said to be tangent if they touch at exactly one point:

 

toc | return to top | previous page | next page