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A secant line touches a circle at two points. On the other hand a tangent line meets a circle at one point.
The tangent line is the instantaneous rate of change at a point on a curve. The secant line crosses a curve twice at points A and B, representing the average rate of change between those two points.
a chord is a line segment and its endpoints are on the circle. a secant line is a "line" (meaning it is continuous and has no end points) that intersects a circle (in two places if that's not obvious). > > > Beans63
Any line that enters a circle (and is not a tangent) must cross its boundary twice; once to enter, once to exit. Since a secant is a line segment that joins two different points on a curve, such a line as above is a secant.
A tangent at that point where a straight line just touches a curve and a secant line when the straight line bisects the curve.