the.com/asymptote
The line a curve loves forever but can never quite touch.
means A line that a curve gets closer and closer to without ever actually meeting it, no matter how far you extend it.
from From Greek 'asymptotos,' meaning 'not falling together' — built from 'a-' (not) plus 'symptotos' (falling together, from syn- 'together' and ptotos 'fallen,' related to piptein 'to fall'). Greek geometers coined it for lines that, despite running alongside each other forever, were mathematically forbidden from ever touching down together.
- origin
- Greek for not falling together
- infinity trick
- lets math describe forever without reaching it
- common type
- vertical ones hide division by zero
- real use
- models growth that slows but never quite stops