What Now

Ah, now I get it!

Years ago, a very dear friend of mine and I were having a conversation in which he used the word "Tangent." I had no idea what the word meant at the time, so I had to stop and ask him what he meant by "Going off on a tangent."

--EDIT-- I just realized that by asking him to explain the word, we actually went off on a tangent!

As a way to explain, he drew a circle in the mulch and drew a line starting in the middle of the circle and extending through the side of it. The circle, he says, is your conversation. The line through it would be your tangent, meaning you interrupt the conversation and talk about something else for a moment. (I'm paraphrasing, of course. I can't remember what he was wearing or his exact words. This makes me feel oddly guilty.)

Anyways, I've always liked that little drawing and I've used it many times in my artwork , doodles or whatever because it brought back good memories of that day, I guess. I didn't even know for years that a tangent is also a math thing.

I just now Google-Image searched the word "Tangent" and now I know why I got so many weird looks when I had to explain what the strange little symbol I had drawn was. An actual tangent symbol is a bit different. They must've thought I was an idiot! Heeheehee.

Eh, who cares. I like our version better!