3 Search Results
3D-XplorMath
The primary goal of 3D-XplorMath is to allow users with little or no programming experience to see, with minimal effort, concrete visual representations of many different categories of mathematical objects and processes. To accomplish this, objects from each category are described internally by well-designed, parameterized data structures, and for each category a variety of rendering methods is provided to permit visualization of objects of the category in ways that are appropriate for various purposes. Each of the hundreds of built-in objects known to the program is assigned carefully chosen defaults so that, when the object is selected from a menu, the program can immediately construct a standard example of the object and render it in an optimized view. The user may then use various menus and dialogs to alter the parameters describing the shape and coloration of the object, change the viewpoint from which it is seen, select different rendering methods, etc. Moreover, as its name suggests, the program can display objects such as surfaces, space curves and polyhedra using various stereo techniques. In addition to the many built-in objects known to the program, a user can create "user-defined" objects by entering formulas using standard mathematical notation. Visualizations created by the program can be saved in jpeg and other graphic formats and the data defining 3D objects can be exported to other 3D programs (e.g., Bryce or POV-Ray) in formats such as .obj and .inc. Both built-in and user-defined objects can depend on parameters, and the program can create morphing animations by moving along a path in the parameter space, and these animations can then be saved as QuickTime movies. Each of the built-in objects has associated to it a so-called ATO (About This Object) file that provides documentation for the object. An early and more developed version of the program, written in Object Pascal, runs under the Macintosh Operating System and a Java-based cross-platform version is now also available.
More informationKnotPlot
KnotPlot is a program to visualize and manipulate knots in three and four dimensions. Knots can be loaded from a database of almost 1000 knots and links or sketched by hand in three dimensions. Also, knots may be constructed via the Conway notation or using a tangle calculator. A number of special knot types (torus knots, knot chains, Lissajous knots) may be created on the fly. Finally, new knots can be created from old knots using a number of transformations.
More informationpolymake
polymake is an object-oriented system for experimental discrete mathematics. The typical working cycle of a polymake user starts with the construction of an object of interest, auch as a convex polytope, a finite simplicial complex, a graph, etc. It is then possible to ask the system for some of the object's properties or for some form of visualization. Further steps might include more elaborate constructions based on previously defined objects. Each class of polymake objects comes with a set of rules which describe how a new property of an object can be derived from previously known ones. It is a key feature that the user can extend or modify the set of rules, add further properties or even new classes of objects (with entirely new rule bases). The functions provided include: several convex hull algorithms, face lattices of convex polytopes, Voronoi diagrams and Delaunay decompositions (in arbitrary dimensions), simplicial homology (with integer coefficients), simplicial cup and cap products, intersection forms of triangulated 4-manifolds. Several forms of (interactive) visualization via interfaces to Geomview, JavaView and other programs.
More information