Editing Secant line (section)

{{short description|Line that intersects a curve at least twice}}
{{for|the secant trigonometric function|Secant (trigonometry)}}

In [[geometry]], a '''secant''' is a [[line (geometry)|line]] that intersects a [[curve]] at a minimum of two distinct [[Point (geometry)|points]].<ref name="cag">{{citation|title=Calculus with Analytic Geometry|first1=Murray H.|last1=Protter|author1-link=Murray H. Protter|first2=Philip E.|last2=Protter|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning|year=1988|isbn=9780867200935|page=62|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jTmuOwwGDwoC&pg=PA62}}.</ref>
The word ''secant'' comes from the [[Latin]] word ''secare'', meaning ''to cut''.<ref>{{citation|title=Experimental Mensuration: An Elementary Test-book of Inductive Geometry|first=Herbert Stanley|last=Redgrove|publisher=Van Nostrand|year=1913|page=167|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nh0yAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA167}}.</ref> In the case of a [[circle]], a secant intersects the circle at exactly two points. A [[Chord (geometry)|chord]] is the [[line segment]] determined by the two points, that is, the [[interval (mathematics)|interval]] on the secant whose ends are the two points.<ref>{{citation|title=Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers|first=Jan|last=Gullberg|author-link=Jan Gullberg|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=1997|isbn=9780393040029|page=387|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E09fBi9StpQC&pg=PA387}}.</ref>