Finding Intersection and Tangent Lines of Parametric Curves | Step-by-Step Guide

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I need to find the point of intersection of the curves x^2 + y^2 =1, z= 0 and x=cost, y=sint, z=t. I plugged in the latter equation into the former and got (1,0,0) as an answer but I'm not exactly sure why that works, I can't visualize how plugging in the parts of a parametric equation will yield the point of intersection.

I also need to find the tangent lines to the curves at that point, and I'm not sure where to start.
 
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The two curves you have in the circle in the plane and a helix. You would expect that there is only one intersection point, and that will be at t=0.
 
Makes sense. How do I find the tangent line to a parametric curve in R3, though?
 
Differentiate with respect to t!
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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