How to Find the Equation of a

Tangent Line
A line tangent to a curve is one that only touches the curve at only one point. In order to find the
equation of a line tangent to a curve at a certain point, you have to find the slope of the curve at
that point, which requires calculus. You can then write the equation of the tangent line in pointslope form. This article will explain these steps.

Tangents and normals

If you differentiate the equation of a curve, you will get a formula for the gradient of the curve. Before you
learnt differentiation, you would have found the gradient of a curve by drawing a tangent and measuring
the gradient of this. This is because the gradient of a curve at a point is equal to the gradient of the
tangent at that point.
The equation of the tangent to a point on a curve can therefore be found by differentiation.
Example
Find the equation of the tangent to the curve y = x 3 at the point (2, 8).
dy = 3x2
dx
Gradient of tangent when x = 2 is 3 22 = 12.
From the coordinate geometry section, the equation of the tangent is therefore:
y - 8 = 12(x - 2) since the gradient of the tangent is 12 and we know that it passes through (2, 8)
so y = 12x - 16
You may also be asked to find the gradient of the normal to the curve. The normal to the curve is the line
perpendicular (at right angles) to the tangent to the curve at that point.
Remember, if two lines are perpendicular, the product of their gradients is -1.
So if the gradient of the tangent at the point (2, 8) of the curve y = x 3 is 12, the gradient of the normal is 1/12, since -1/12 12 = -1 .
The equation of the normal at the point (2, 8) is therefore:
y - 8 = -1/12 (x - 2)

hence the equation of the normal at (2,8) is 12y + x = 98 .

Algebraic method in finding the asymptote of a curve

What is an asymptote of a curve?
An asymptote of the curve y = f(x) (or in implicit form: f(x,y) = 0) is a
straight line such that the distance between the curve and the straight line lends
to zero when the points on the curve approach infinity. There are three types of
asymptotes, namely, vertical, horizontal and oblique asymptotes. Here is
analgebraic method for finding oblique (and also horizontal) asymptotes
ofalgebraic curves.

The method
(1) Replace y by mx + c in the equation of the curve and arrange the result in
the form :
(2) Solve the simultaneous equation :

(3) For each pair of solutions of m and c, write the equation of an asymptote y =
mx + c.
(4) If there is no

term in (1), solve :

instead of the set of simultaneous equation in (2).

Reason for (2) above

The equation
has a double root at infinity.

Put

The equation becomes

Then the equation has a double root at y = 0.

That is, the equation is of the form:

Therefore :

Example

Find the oblique asymptotes of

Solution
Put y = mx + c in
(x2 - 1)(mx+c) = x3.
(m-1)x3 - cx2 - mx -c = 0
Put y = 1/x in (1),
cy3 + my2 + cy - (m-1) = 0

(1)

(2)

y = mx + c is an asymptote of
iff there is a double root at infinity for (1)
iff there is a double root at 0 for (2).
m - 1 = 0 and c = 0.
m = 1 and c = 0.
The oblique asymptote is y = x.

Appendix (Calculus method)

The oblique asymptote is y = x.