Piecewise linear functions are magic

April 30, 2014 10:16 AM

Graphing Calculator: Creative Art
posted by Wolfdog (11 comments total)

Wow, I love this so much more than is reasonable.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:17 AM on April 30, 2014

(Desmos is also an incredible online graphing calculator, if anyone is looking for one).
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:17 AM on April 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yes, don't neglect the Try It Out link at the top of that page if you'd like to try it out.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:20 AM on April 30, 2014

I mean some of these are really beautiful.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:44 AM on April 30, 2014

Omg why no splines?
posted by zscore at 10:55 AM on April 30, 2014

They're being reticulated as we speak.
posted by curious nu at 11:26 AM on April 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Should add a rollover that pops up a matrix representation.
posted by sammyo at 11:46 AM on April 30, 2014

This is the realm of distraction that taught me about the power of programming instead of the power of paying attention in math class back in high school. There's nothing quite like programmatically generating pretty layers of spirals on a polar coordinate system to impress your friends in class when you're 14 years old.

Kids these days get to use colors now? I'm jealous.
posted by oceanjesse at 1:13 PM on April 30, 2014

518008

...now flip the screen over
posted by pxe2000 at 5:31 PM on April 30, 2014

I was about to snark on this because of course you can generate any shape you want by using enough formulae, but then I looked at the formulae for some of the simple ones (e.g., Elmo). This is a great way to teach math! This is a great way to teach kids about the way functions work (e.g., that even powers of negative numbers are even, and odd powers are odd)! I would really like to get an app for this on an Ipad.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:30 PM on April 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Where's the RPN? It's not a calculator without the RPN.
posted by scruss at 7:57 PM on April 30, 2014