Tangent vector
Vector tangent to a curve or surface at a given point / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For a more general, but more technical, treatment of tangent vectors, see Tangent space.
In mathematics, a tangent vector is a vector that is tangent to a curve or surface at a given point. Tangent vectors are described in the differential geometry of curves in the context of curves in Rn. More generally, tangent vectors are elements of a tangent space of a differentiable manifold. Tangent vectors can also be described in terms of germs. Formally, a tangent vector at the point is a linear derivation of the algebra defined by the set of germs at .