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Secant

Definition

The secant of an angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the length of the hypotenuse to the length of the adjacent side.

Analogy

Imagine you are driving a car on a curvy road. The secant would be like measuring how far you have traveled from your starting point, regardless of whether you are going uphill or downhill.

Related terms

Tangent: The tangent of an angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the length of the opposite side to the length of the adjacent side.

Cosine: The cosine of an angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the length of the adjacent side to the length of the hypotenuse.

Sine: The sine of an angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the length of the opposite side to the length of the hypotenuse.

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AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.