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The immediate surroundings of any point on a curved path can be considered as part of a circle: the circle of curvature at that point. Then the tangent to the path at that point is a line that meets the path at only one point in that neighbourhood and which is perpendicular to the line joining the point to the centre of the circle or curvature.

The concept can be extended to straight segments of the path by assuming that the centre of curvature is at an infinite distance. In that case, the path and its tangent are the same line.

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