 Euclid makes several references to the tangent ( "ephaptoménē") to a circle in book III of the "Elements" (c. 300 BC).In Apollonius work "Conics" (c. 225 BC) he defines a tangent as being "a line such that no other straight line could
fall between it and the curve".Archimedes (c.  287 – c.  212 BC) found the tangent to an Archimedean spiral by considering the path of a point moving along the curve.