It creates as a distance between two points, rather than a straight line, an arabesque.

它加长了两点之间的距离，使它变得非直而曲。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

Now there many ways I can connect these two points together. The simplest way is to draw a straight line. It's called the linear interpolation. My line is not so straight, right here. You could do a different kind of line.

最简单的办法是,像这样画一条直线,这叫线性插值,不过我的这条线画得不太直，你也可以用别的办法,比如一条抛物线。

麻省理工公开课 - 热力学与动力学课程节选

I don't know how well you can see it in this figure here, is the slope of a straight line connecting these two points, and as the points come closer and closer, the straight line would become tangent to the curve.

我不清楚你们对于这个图像的理解,这条连接两点的斜线,随着两点距离逐渐缩小,两点连线会变成曲线的切线

耶鲁公开课 - 基础物理课程节选

That's a choice, and that choice turns out to be very interesting and really important, because if you connect these two points together, you get a straight line that has to intercept the x-axis at some point.

在这一选择下,我们会发现一件非常有趣，而且极其重要的事,当你把这两点用直线连接起来，你会发现这条直线,将与x轴在某点相交。

麻省理工公开课 - 热力学与动力学课程节选