Mathing…

Inspired by Sam J. Shah’s post entitled Factoring, Schmactoring, I created this using Processing. Downloading and installing it was quick and easy, so I was happy. But sadly, it was about 2 hours of going through the various examples on their website before I realized the code samples and examples were included with the software that I downloaded. I played with one of their samples Primitive 3D to get a feel for how to create and manipulate basic objects. After I created a grid I played with having the camera rotate and zoom in, but after about 2 hours of experimentation I didn’t feel like I was getting closer to anything that might be visually compelling and useful for the classroom. I ended up using orthographic projection view just to fit the entire grid.

The final product is a little disappointing, especially after seeing what other people are able to create with it on YouTube and Vimeo. But for a Processing newbie who hasn’t touched java in ages, to be able to use the examples and sample code to come up with the above, I give Processing a lot of credit. I will probably play more with it during winter break.

UPDATE: Removed the applet and replaced it with image.
UPDATE2: You can try the presets or just play with Quadratic Grid, which has similar visualization of the original Processing applet but done with javascript and has more options, under My Math Tools.