EquationExplorer
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I graph with it?
EquationExplorer can graph most algebraic equations, both implicit and explicit.
Here are a few interesting implicit equations to get you started:
- Circle
- Ellipse
- Superellipse
- Cardioid
- Limacon
- Elliptic Curve
- Mordell Curve
- Heart Curve
- Quadrifolium
- Knot Curve
It also supports non-implicit functions, such as:
What special functions can be used in equations?
- sin — Sine (radians)
- cos — Cosine (radians)
- tan — Tangent (radians)
- atan — Inverse Tangent (result in radians)
- acos — Inverse Cosine (result in radians)
- asin — Inverse Sine (result in radians)
- round — Round to nearest integer
- sqrt — Square Root
- abs — Absolute Value
- ln — Natural Logarithm
How can I save a graph as an image?
Right click on the graph and choose "Save Image As..." (In Firefox). Other browsers may have similar options.
What happens when I use the variable m in an equation?
Buttons will appear below the input to allow you to adjust the value of m. That value will be substituted back into the equation at each use of the variable. This allows you to easily experiment on how a change to a constant will affect the graph.
Many of the example equations listed above use this feature.
Which browsers are supported?
This application performs the best in the following browsers:
- Firefox 3.5+
- Google Chrome
- Safari 4+
These browsers also work, though it may be slow or lack certain features:
- Firefox 3.0+
- Opera
Why isn't Microsoft Internet Explorer supported?
Internet Explorer does not support the <canvas> element this application uses for its graphing. Additionally, the Javascript engine in IE is much too slow to handle real-time rendering.
Try another browser and you'll have a better experience on this and other sites.
How does it work?
You can read about the inner workings of EquationExplorer on my blog post.
Can I re-use the parser or graphing engine elsewhere?
The source is released under the GPL and can be found on github. Relevant files are:
- tdop_math.js - the parser
- tokens.js - the TDOP tokenizer
- graph.js - the graphing engine
- ui.js - the user interface
You can experiment with the parser at its test page
Have another question?
Post on the Feedback page