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ASYMPTOTE

Volume 4 · 61 words · 1860 Edition

in Geometry, a line which continually approaches nearer to some curve, but which, though continued infinitely, would never meet it. This property belongs to the hyperbolic curve and its asymptotes, which are in relation to each other as a repeating decimal fraction and unity. The term is derived from the Greek ἀσύμπτωτος (from α, priv., ὁρίζω and πτέρω), "not falling together."